Charity and finance in the university

In this paper we explore the financialisation of the university, and how it is possible that universities behave as if they were private corporations despite legally being corporations with a charitable status. We argue that this is largely attributable to financialisation, which creates tension with the university's charitable status. The paper commences with a brief history of incorporation, and examines developments in corporate governance. With the dominance of finance, and the treatment of institutions as mere nexus of contracts, distinctions between public and private become redundant. The paper continues with an account of the effects of financialisation on university governance, under which the university acts increasingly like a for-profit corporation, with its financial governance in direct contradiction to its charitable status. Here, the university emerges as a key site of neoliberalism, where financialised subjects are shaped. Finally, we examine to what extent the financialisation of the university may be halted through a reflection on its status as a charitable corporation.

► We explore the financialisation of the university with recourse to its corporate history.
► The university today is thoroughly financialised in its governance and accountability.
► Through student debt the university shapes financialised subjects of human capital.
► Finance in the university conflicts with the commons on which its day-to-day operations rely.
► A recovery of the university's corporate history may be one strategy to resist its financialisation.