Education as capital accumulation

In our commentary, we first explore what critical university studies literatures have long critiqued: the privatization of public higher education and the corporatization of the university. The Trump administration leverages this to dismantle politically inconvenient departments, policies, and programs by arguing their “liberal bias” while simultaneously using the rhetoric of economic efficiency to justify politically motivated cuts. We then highlight the stakes of this in the contemporary moment where university “partnerships” with Silicon Valley are hyped as the future of higher education. We conclude by reimagining the value of a higher education focused on feminist, anti-racist, and anti-nationalist ethics.