Reinventing the university business model: opinion

Dan makes some good points. However, in my personal opinion he completely misses the point when he tries to reduce the role of Universities to ‘being businesses’ that should focus on ‘creating job-ready graduates’. The whole point of Universities has always been to create and expand knowledge. Knowledge that is not always linked to what industry wants, but that is linked to our progression as a species. Knowledge that does not automatically fit into a job-ready program, but which expands our understanding of our species and our planet.
If we need to make use of some business principles in order to keep our institutions going, then so be it. We may even see some Universities fail due to economic contractions. However, Universities are only susceptible to those contractions because they have been made to operate like businesses by Governments. Do not make the mistake of treating Universities as corporate businesses. Knowledge is not a resource that should be held hostage by corporate interests.