ABSTRACT
This chapter presents the sociological literature on the Enterprise University, the phenomenon of Academic Capitalism, the rise of the Entrepreneurial University and the co-existence of the Exchange University. It focuses on the Exchange University and how these shifts in policy and organizational behaviour are seen in Canadian higher education. A consensus exists in the literature that since the mid-1980s higher education systems and research universities in particular have moved closer to the market and, as a result, academic culture has become more oriented toward the commercialization of knowledge. Marginson and Considine coined the term Enterprise University to represent the changes in the political economy and organizational cultures of Australian universities during the 1990s. The opportunities provided by academic capitalism are understood to reinforce gendered prestige systems within the academy through the market orientation of specific fields and disciplines. For some, academic capitalism seems to be more of a guidebook than a critical approach.
