Can’t the university be more like business?

Businesspeople sigh, Can’t the university be more like business. The faculty complain about business values crowding out academic values. The truth, I contend, lies in the muddy middle. In some respects the university is becoming more like business, and in other respects business is becoming more like the university. The university would do well to emulate business on some dimensions, and business would do well to emulate the university on other dimensions. The worst-case scenario is for the university to move away from those of its non-businesslike qualities that are worth preserving even while it apes business precisely on those qualities business is giving up. Copyright Springer-Verlag Berlin/Heidelberg 2004