Gamze Sart

Transformation of Higher Education Through Technology Parks: Case of Turkey Gamze Sart

This study aims to explore the transformation of the universities by means of the techno-parks. The university-industry-government partnership, which forces to make changes in the universities and ?human capital.? It is so clear that the reasons are not only national, but also supranational where innovation and knowledge are taken as drivers of the competitiveness and growth. The transformation in the higher education is seen as the marketization of the universities by means of generating technological knowledge, which is commodified in the global market economy. The effects of the techno-parks are serious on the academic missions of universities, while changing innovation system so that the missions of universities are re-defined. Hence, knowledge as a commodity can be sold in the market and techno-parks and universities have become the headquarters of corporations. The analyses show that universities are not capable of absorbing the increasing demand so that techno-parks open new liberalization in commodification of knowledge. The transformation towards entrepreneurialization has profoundly produced different problems-inequalities, segregation, and social injustices.