This book considers the detrimental changes that have occurred to the institution of the university, as a result of the withdrawal of state funding and the imposition of neoliberal market reforms on higher education. It argues that universities have lost their way, and are currently drowning in an impenetrable mush of economic babble, spurious spin-offs of zombie economics, management-speak and militaristic-corporate jargon. John Smyth provides a trenchant and excoriating analysis of how universities have enveloped themselves in synthetic and meaningless marketing hype, and explains what this has done to academic work and the culture of universities - specifically, how it has degraded higher education and exacerbated social inequalities among both staff and students. Finally, the book explores how we might commence a reclamation. It should be essential reading for students and researchers in the fields of education and sociology, and anyone interested in the current state of university management.

Chapter 1. Introduction: 'Getting an Academic Life'.- Chapter 2. Neoliberalism: An Alien Interloper in Higher Education.- Chapter 3. Why the 'Toxic' University? A Case of Two Very Different Academics.- Chapter 4. Why Zombie Leadership?.- Chapter 5. Cultivation of the 'Rock Star' Academic Researcher?.- Chapter 6. The University as an Instrument of 'Class'.- Chapter 7. The 'Cancer Stage of Capitalism' in Universities.- Chapter 8. Enough is Enough... of this Failed Experiment of Killing the Host.- Chapter 9. Get Off My Bus! The Reversal of What We have been Doing in Universities.