This article explores how leaders, key decision-makers in research-intensive public universities perceive marketisation in the sector in relation to public-private arrangements in teaching and learning provision. The focus is on the nature of relationships between public universities and those private companies engaged in the co-creation, delivery and support of educational provision. It draws on 16 interviews with decision makers – senior leaders and managers in higher education at six research-intensive universities in South Africa and England. Questions raised in this article are: How do senior decision makers perceive the entry of private players into public higher education? What are their experiences of working in partnership with private companies? What effect do they think the relationship is having on the status of the public university? How do they talk about the market actors? We observe that university leaders in both study countries, despite their different positions in the global field of higher education, and the hybrid moral economy around processes of marketisation all use language borrowed from the business sector to justify or reject marketisation. This indicates an unprecedented level of normalisation of this rhetoric in a public sector otherwise sensitive to language use posing serious questions about the nature of public universities in this marketised era.

中文翻译：

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谈判“新常态”：大学领导者与市场化

本文探讨研究型公立大学的领导者，关键决策者如何在教学提供方面的公私安排方面看待该行业的市场化。重点是公立大学与参与共同创造，提供和支持教育提供的私营公司之间的关系的性质。它利用了在南非和英格兰的六所研究型大学中对决策者的访谈–高等教育的高级领导者和经理。本文提出的问题是：高级决策者如何看待私人企业进入公立高等教育？他们与私人公司合作的经验是什么？他们认为这种关系对公立大学的地位有什么影响？他们如何谈论市场参与者？我们观察到，尽管两个研究国家的大学领导者尽管在全球高等教育领域中的地位不同，但围绕市场化过程的混合道德经济都使用从商业部门借来的语言来证明或拒绝市场化。这表明在公共部门中这种修辞的标准化程度达到了空前的水平，否则对语言使用很敏感，从而对这个市场化时代的公立大学的性质提出了严重的质疑。