Academic capitalism in Catalonia: The university industry relationship on university websites

Abstract

The reforms of recent decades resulting from the Bologna process have increasingly placed the European university within a regime of academic capitalism, according to which highereducation and research are subordinated to commercial interests. Using the theoretical framework of critical discourse analysis, this article examines the university-industry relationship, one of the key aspects of this new regime, on the websites of the seven public universities in Catalonia. The analysis starts with a description of the content, the business agents, and the languages that appear in them. The second phase of the analysis, qualitative in nature, determines the main themes and meanings that arise and, at the same time, reveals the ideologies inherent in the discourse. The results show that the analyzed university discourse adopts a business language that celebrates entrepreneurship and competitiveness. This article argues that this discourse contributes to building a certain worldview from within the university, according to which valid knowledge is that which is transferable to the market, researchers are potential entrepreneurs, and higher education and research must be in the service of the capitalist productive sphere. The article concludes by making a call to question the relations between public universities and private business endeavors, and to search for ways to free the university from the current neoliberal hegemony.