Rethinking Capitalist Governance of Higher Education Towards an Anarcho-Syndicalist Model for Academia

Universities are increasingly led by non-academic managers and corporate leaders, rather than academics. This shift comes after the adoption of capitalist logics and corporate practices which undermine the core purpose of higher education. The corporatisation of university governance has shifted the academy away from serving the public good, instead driving profit-driven agendas, academic-military alliances, and the marginalisation of liberatory and transformative scholarship. In this paper, we contemplate a radical reimagination of the current model of governance to reclaim the university as a site of knowledge creation, dissemination and social critique that values diversity, plurality and positive transformation. Drawing on principles of anarcho-syndicalism, we propose a decentralised, democratic model of academic governance that empowers marginalised voices, fosters critical inquiry, and prioritises collective wellbeing over capitalist interests. We emphasise that any reimagining of academic governance must incorporate decolonial and intersectional perspectives to challenge the colonial and imperial legacies that continue to shape higher education.