The driving force of the new economy has become knowledge, the work most individuals perform requires theoretical knowledge and the major resource of the post-industrial society is its well-educated workforce. The intrusion of the rhetoric and management practices of the private sector into higher education resulted in important changes in the operation of higher education institutions. Education is no longer seen as a social right to become a service, with universities being its providers and students their clients. Academics were transformed into service providers and lost their aura of disinterestedness, no longer being trusted to run their institutions. Universities are under permanent pressure to supply the labour market with graduates having the skills necessary for the short-term needs of the economy, skills that change all the time and are to be evaluated as learning outcomes. This has made the university to lose its condition of ‘social institution’ to progressively become a mere ‘social organization’ or administered entity.