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¡°Universities, at the end of the day, are businesses.¡± (¡°Cap won¡¯t fit for long: v-c predicts ?20,000 UK fees¡±, News, 7?November.) How glibly that phrase issues from the lips of Nick Petford, vice-chancellor of the University of Northampton, and from those of so many of his colleagues. And how insidiously its steady drip, drip enters the political unconscious: I first heard the phrase stated as self-evident by a senior civil servant in the old Department for Education and Skills about 10 years ago. It was a moment of shocked awakening. Nowadays it passes unchallenged.

Yes, all organisations have to balance their books (except, it seems, banks and corporate finance firms), but that doesn¡¯t make them businesses. To run a university as a business, with all the consequences thereon, is a choice (or, more likely, submission to the prevailing dogma).

And what a weaselly phrase ¡°at the end of the day¡± is: at the end of the day, women can¡¯t assume the same responsibilities as men; at the end of the day, people are paid what they are worth (and are worth what they are paid). How long before we hear: ¡°Healthcare, at the?end of the day, is a business¡±?

Careless talk costs lives.

Nicholas Till
School of Media, Film and Music
University of Sussex