Are universities in business?

University staff are concerned about their customers - the name they give to students to illustrate the importance of running a proper business. The desire by all types of organisation to be compared to an unregulated profit-making trading company - strongly encouraged by UK governments since the privatisation campaign started - can be very misleading and sometimes absurd. After many years in industry and now quite a few in university, teaching management and business skills, the author asks how well a university matches up to this instinct to be businesslike and how it should teach management and business skills to its postgraduate students.