Abstract

Henry Heller s candid historical account and astute institutional analysis of the evolution of higher education over the past forty years partly constitutes a significant and timely contribution to this current debate This study takes stock of the contemporary malaise of postmodernism neoliberalism and the so-called knowledge economy of academic capitalism in higher institutions of learning with much focus on Kenya and Uganda These two countries take prominence in this study because of their aggressive capitalistic approaches towards higher education in the East African region Data were obtained from a statistically determined sample size of 186 respondents inclusive of the upper and middle-level university leadership as well as professors drawn from 32 universities both private and public in Kenya and Uganda Findings revealed that inter-university competition for student enrollment B -0 879 sig 0 0133 strongly and negatively affected quality of higher education more than any other sub-variable followed by profit making dogma B -0 755 sig 0 0210 then sabotage for survival B -0 712 sig 0 0264 while complacence of the regulatory bodies had a weak negative effect B -0 619 sig 0 0339