Academic Capitalism and the Erosion of Intellectual Inquiry

In the late twentieth century, the term academic capitalism described the convergence of higher education institutions with market ideologies. Coined by Sheila Slaughter and Larry L. Leslie in their 1997 work, Academic Capitalism: Politics, Policies, and the Entrepreneurial University, the phrase signifies a shift: universities, once havens of independent thought, are increasingly driven by commercial imperatives and profit-generating strategies.

At the heart of academic capitalism lies the commodification of knowledge. Universities now compete not only for students, but for patents, start-up ventures, and lucrative research contracts. Faculty are incentivized to pursue grant funding with commercial appeal, often at the expense of basic research or critical humanities scholarship. As research is reframed as a tool for national competitiveness and economic growth, disciplines that do not easily yield marketable outputs — such as philosophy, literature, or sociology — find themselves marginalized in institutional budgeting and policy.

This erosion is particularly visible in how academic labor is reshaped. A 2021 study by the American Association of University Professors (AAUP) found that over 70% of faculty positions in the U.S. are now off the tenure track, often part-time and precariously paid. The adjunctification of teaching staff reflects a broader neoliberal restructuring: universities reduce costs, increase managerial control, and create a workforce increasingly disconnected from the traditional values of scholarly autonomy and collegial governance.

Moreover, students themselves are redefined within this system — no longer learners in pursuit of transformative knowledge, but consumers purchasing credentials. With rising tuition fees, education becomes an investment, and degrees a product. The consequence is a transactional relationship with learning, where measurable outcomes and return on investment dominate pedagogical priorities. This phenomenon has been exacerbated by global rankings, which pressure universities to prioritize quantifiable performance indicators over meaningful intellectual engagement.

Critics such as political theorist Wendy Brown argue that this neoliberal turn corrodes the university’s democratic and public-serving mission. In Undoing the Demos (2015), Brown writes that “as neoliberal rationality moves from the periphery to the center of university governance, it reconfigures academic freedom, student activism, and shared governance as inefficiencies, obstructions to the university’s ‘core business’.” The pursuit of truth — once an end in itself — becomes instrumentalized, valued only insofar as it can be monetized.

Importantly, this is not a critique of innovation or collaboration with industry per se. Many vital discoveries emerge from university-corporate partnerships, particularly in science and technology. Rather, the concern is with balance: when the entrepreneurial imperative becomes hegemonic, the pluralistic ecosystem of knowledge production is endangered. Inquiry that challenges dominant ideologies, questions existing power structures, or explores the human condition in non-quantifiable ways may no longer find institutional support.

Resistance is growing. From unionized faculty movements demanding fair labor conditions, to scholars calling for a renewed emphasis on the public good of higher education, the critique of academic capitalism is entering mainstream discourse. Reimagining the university as a space not just for innovation, but for contemplation, critique, and collective learning, is essential to safeguarding its role in a democratic society.

As we move forward, educators, policymakers, and academic leaders must reckon with a pivotal question: Can the university remain a site of intellectual freedom in an age of market dominance? Or will the logic of capital render even our deepest inquiries subject to the whims of profitability? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below!