The commodification of the production and dissemination of knowledge and its effects. The university students submitted subjects

Abstract

This essay offers a theoretical and political perspective on the expansion of higher education in Latin America that differs from the predominant one in the current academic mainstream. Based on a bibliographic research, the analysis emphasizes its most harmful effects on the work of university students, mainly those caused by the growing commercialization of the production and dissemination of knowledge that tends to produce overvaluation of the publication of papers in prestigious journals, devaluation of the social utility of knowledge, corrupt practices, erosion of the credibility and  of the quality of academic production, unscrupulous competition, exacerbated individualism and the deterioration of interpersonal relationships.