MARKET METAPHORS, NEO-LIBERALISM AND THE CONSTRUCTION OF ACADEMIC LANDSCAPES IN AOTEAROA NEW-ZEALAND

New Zealand's far-reaching experiment with neo-liberal economic and so cial policies has become a model for many right-leaning economic comme ntators-and some governments-throughout the 'developed' world We are h ighly critical of such sentiments, noting that the 'New Zealand experi ment' has been anything but good for New Zealand itself: Our argument focuses upon the way that neo-liberal rhetorics of 'competitiveness' h ave reconstituted the landscape of academia in New Zealand. We suggest that such competition metaphors, which construct universities as 'kno wledge businesses' and students as 'consumers', provide a wholly inapp ropriate model for university education. Instead, we suggest a reconst ituted notion of 'collegiality' might provide the basis for a more inc lusive construction of university education.