Abstract:
This paper seeks to make practical recommendations on how universities can thrive when expected to merely survive. Once, higher education was considered a public good, and so it seemed appropriate that the state remain its sole funder. However, now that states are withdrawing their investment in higher education because they deem other socioeconomic responsibilities (like Covid-19 relief measures) more pressing, it is difficult for universities to receive adequate public funding for teaching and research. In order to compensate for such decreased funding, universities are being driven to find other sources of income, for example, by seeking to collaborate with industry. While pro-marketeers argue in favour of such an economic mission, anti-marketeers argue against it. Using the University of Auckland (UoA) as a case study, I analyse how, if the economic mission is done well, it can reduce universities' resource dependence on public funding-a tool to thrive despite funding cuts.