Attached
In the present moment of global capitalism, the marketisation of higher
education is a reality in the Global South and North. Yet, the Southern
experience of marketisation differs from that of the North. This article
examines how market-based development in Sri Lanka since the
economic liberalisation of 1977 has reshaped Sri Lankan university
education. It revisits the historical evolution of “free (higher) education”
and critically analyses the influx of global brands into the country’s
“education market”. Using the “MacBurger” as a metaphor—for
“posh” food in Sri Lanka—the article shows how the influx, together with
the rise of fee-levying non-state (and state) universities, endangers the
legacy of Sri Lankan (university) education as a “public good”. In
conclusion, the article emphasises the widening educational inequality in
the country and argues that higher education cannot be left to the free
market in the peripheral countries of the South.
