Abstract:
A significant critique of the World Bank’s problematic role in public
higher education is that through its conditionalities it paves the way for
privatization and a deterioration of public education systems. In Sri Lankan
universities, as in other countries, programmes in higher education using such
loan monies became entry points for corporatized discourses and practices,
changing how universities perceive themselves. In such instances, institutions and
individuals may find that the space to resist or change such discourses is
negligible. This paper examines the possibilities available within such a
corporatized space for a venture that is antithetical to such corporatized
discourses. The case study for this is an accessibility programme supported by
World Bank loans. Through interviews and text analysis I explore how recipients
of loan monies work within conditionalities and corporatizing discourses to
produce what could be called a social good.
