The role of academic community in higher learning: Alternatives to a drive-thru education

a sense of academic community is of fundamental importance in combating the effects of the neo-liberal economic discourse on higher education, and that the values of higher education are incongruent with those of economic rationalism. The discursive commodification of the student, and of education itself, works against the formation of community, both within the university environment and in the wider society. at present, the dominant discourse shaping the social practice of higher education is that of neo-liberal economics.Community values stand in opposition to the dominant discourse, and are integral to the long-term survival of a socially critical and socially responsive society. the importance of establishing a sense of academic community during the first year of university is justified by its ultimate value to society.It had become an education market… in which students and parents were consumers,teachers and academics were producers, and educational administrators had become managers and entrepreneurs’