Abstract:
As a result of changing conditions of funding, emanating in a sense of crisis
about viability and the need to find new sources of revenue, many universities in
Australia and elsewhere are moving into new areas of application in novel partnerships
with corporate organizations, to deliver 'work-based learning'. But what may promise to
resolve a fiscal crisis some times can generate practices which prove deeply unsettling for the
context in which they are embedded. In this article we explore the extent to which new
modes of work-based learning represent a legitimation crisis for universities as well as
exploring their implications for the corporatepartners. Data from an ongoing study of
such a partnership between the ABC Co, a global financial industry firm, and a large
university dedicated to forging practice-based relationships with industry, are drawn on.
The conclusions that we reach suggest that the reality of the new knowledge age of workbased
learning is, perhaps, rather more a question of impression management, jointly
negotiated on both sides, than a brave new world.
