Universities promoting compliance culture, 'discouraging' critical thinking, learning

By Bhabani Shankar Nayak*

Universities are experiencing depoliticization, marketisation and the deepening of managerialism over last three decades. The campuses across the globe are witnessing the growth of car park culture of managerialism where students and staff members are treated as cash cows or cars in the car parks.

The Vice Chancellors, Deputy Vice Chancellors and their managerial elks run universities like badly managed undemocratic family firms. The growth of compliance culture is ruining the critical traditions of knowledge production and democratic dissemination. The managers in the universities rarely teach and research.

They bluff with deceptive voice of concern and brand themselves as practitioners with new titles as Professors of Practice. What practice? The answer is as tenuous as the title refers. However, they talk about quality teaching and quality research. This is fake acting master class in a theatre of absurdity in an integrity free zone called managerial universities. Sausage factories are better in terms of quality processes than universities today.
Such a ruinous path is dangerous for the present and future of our students and society. The managerial onslaughts on critical thinking, teaching and learning are posing serious challenges to the possibilities of radical transformation in the society.

The growing managerialism and marketisation of education is trying to establish a marketplace for education free from any form of consciousness, creative and critical thinking. It is trying to produce compliant hands, minds and skills necessary for the running of a profit driven market based on commoditisation of lives and livelihoods. The commodification of education is a means for the commoditisation of society and individual lives.

In spite of all forms of alienation perpetuated by the marketisation and managerialism within universities, but managerial universities lack radical class consciousness and class character as workers in the universities work like distinct herds without any form of coherence in common experience.

The departmentalisation of knowledge in the name of specialisation and employability skills, there is compartmentalisation of people working in the compliance knowledge industry called universities. It destroys the interdisciplinary foundations of knowledge.

The career seeking staffs, students and knowledge workers are busy in tick box exercise in selling overpriced educational degrees and qualifications printed in an A4 size paper, badly printed in some remote corners of the unused building in the universities. The crises of universities reflect larger crises of radical consciousness in the society.

All crises and challenges are opportunities of possibilities for radical transformation of universities in particular and society in general.

Career seeking staffs, students and knowledge workers are busy in tick box exercise in selling overpriced educational degrees

The managerial universities create alienating experience in the workplace for both staff and students irrespective of their positions in the classrooms and in the university pay scale. Universities treat students and staffs as numbers in the managerial excel sheets. This is the new reality.

There is no illusion about it. These common experiences and outcomes are central to build a radical movement in the backdrop of deepening marginalisation staff and students in the universities.

The processes pf proletarianization of men and women, white and non-white workers, racial and religious minorities, laptop class and chattering class, outsourcing of jobs are common grounds on which we can stand together and fight in solidarity for the greater good of society. This can only help in the decolonisation and democratisation knowledge from managerial universities under capitalism.

There are some radical campus struggles that gives us hope for a better future. The freedom from managerial universities and their transformation depends on our commitment to the defeat of capitalist system.

It is a common battle. It is a battle for scientific and secular knowledge tradition accessible and available to all without any form of barriers. It is a battle for critical and creative knowledge in the service of peace, people and planet. It is the time to fight such a battle to overcome the challenges of managerial university and capitalist society.

---
*University of Glasgow, UK

Comments

Grueling summer ahead: Cuttack’s alarming health trends and what they mean for Odisha

By Sudhansu R Das The preparation to face the summer should begin early in Odisha. People in the state endure long, grueling summer months starting from mid-February and extending until the end of October. This prolonged heat adversely affects productivity, causes deaths and diseases, and impacts agriculture, tourism and the unorganized sector. The social, economic and cultural life of the state remains severely disrupted during the peak heat months.

Stronger India–Russia partnership highlights a missed energy breakthrough

By N.S. Venkataraman* The recent visit of Russian President Vladimir Putin to India was widely publicized across several countries and has attracted significant global attention. The warmth with which Mr. Putin was received by Prime Minister Narendra Modi was particularly noted, prompting policy planners worldwide to examine the implications of this cordial relationship for the global economy and political climate. India–Russia relations have stood on a strong foundation for decades and have consistently withstood geopolitical shifts. This is in marked contrast to India’s ties with the United States, which have experienced fluctuations under different U.S. administrations.

From natural farming to fair prices: Young entrepreneurs show a new path

By Bharat Dogra There have been frequent debates on agro-business companies not showing adequate concern for the livelihoods of small farmers. Farmers’ unions have often protested—generally with good reason—that while they do not receive fair returns despite high risks and hard work, corporate interests that merely process the crops produced by farmers earn disproportionately high profits. Hence, there is a growing demand for alternative models of agro-business development that demonstrate genuine commitment to protecting farmer livelihoods.

The Vande Mataram debate and the politics of manufactured controversy

By Vidya Bhushan Rawat* The recent Vande Mataram debate in Parliament was never meant to foster genuine dialogue. Each political party spoke past the other, addressing its own constituency, ensuring that clips went viral rather than contributing to meaningful deliberation. The objective was clear: to construct a Hindutva narrative ahead of the Bengal elections. Predictably, the Lok Sabha will likely expunge the opposition’s “controversial” remarks while retaining blatant inaccuracies voiced by ministers and ruling-party members. The BJP has mastered the art of inserting distortions into parliamentary records to provide them with a veneer of historical legitimacy.

A comrade in culture and controversy: Yao Wenyuan’s revolutionary legacy

By Harsh Thakor* This year marks two important anniversaries in Chinese revolutionary history—the 20th death anniversary of Yao Wenyuan, and the 50th anniversary of his seminal essay "On the Social Basis of the Lin Biao Anti-Party Clique". These milestones invite reflection on the man whose pen ignited the first sparks of the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution and whose sharp ideological interventions left an indelible imprint on the political and cultural landscape of socialist China.

The cost of being Indian: How inequality and market logic redefine rights

By Vikas Gupta We, the people of India, are engaged in a daily tryst—read: struggle—for basic human rights. For the seemingly well-to-do, the wish list includes constant water supply, clean air, safe roads, punctual public transportation, and crime-free neighbourhoods. For those further down the ladder, the struggle is starker: food that fills the stomach, water that doesn’t sicken, medicines that don’t kill, houses that don’t flood, habitats at safe distances from polluted streams or garbage piles, and exploitation-free environments in the public institutions they are compelled to navigate.

Why India must urgently strengthen its policies for an ageing population

By Bharat Dogra A quiet but far-reaching demographic transformation is reshaping much of the world. As life expectancy rises and birth rates fall, societies are witnessing a rapid increase in the proportion of older people. This shift has profound implications for public policy, and the need to strengthen frameworks for healthy and secure ageing has never been more urgent. India is among the countries where these pressures will intensify most sharply in the coming decades.

Thota Sitaramaiah: An internal pillar of an underground organisation

By Harsh Thakor* Thota Sitaramaiah was regarded within his circles as an example of the many individuals whose work in various underground movements remained largely unknown to the wider public. While some leaders become visible through organisational roles or media attention, many others contribute quietly, without public recognition. Sitaramaiah was considered one such figure. He passed away on December 8, 2025, at the age of 65.

Proposals for Babri Masjid, Ram Temple spark fears of polarisation before West Bengal polls

By A Representative A political debate has emerged in West Bengal following recent announcements about plans for new religious structures in Murshidabad district, including a proposed mosque to be named Babri Masjid and a separate announcement by a BJP leader regarding the construction of a Ram temple in another location within Behrampur.

Search This Blog