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 social policies has become a model for many right-leaning economic commentators-and some governments-throughout the 'developed' world We are highly critical of such sentiments, noting that the 'New Zealand experiment' has been anything but good for New Zealand itself: Our argument focuses upon the way that neo-liberal rhetorics of 'competitiveness' have reconstituted the landscape of academia in New Zealand. We suggest that such competition metaphors, which construct universities as 'knowledge businesses' and students as 'consumers', provide a wholly inappropriate model for university education. Instead, we suggest a reconstituted notion of 'collegiality' might provide the basis for a more inclusive construction of university education.