Embedded Neoliberalism within Faculty Behaviors

Abstract

Although there are claims that neoliberalism has not only commandeered the agenda and actions of universities and colleges but also become identified with the work of academic professionals, there is little empirical evidence to show that neoliberalism has infiltrated the work of faculty. This qualitative field work investigation of three California higher educational institutional types determines that while faculty are not necessarily apologists for or proselytizers of neoliberalism, neoliberal principles are tied to faculty behaviors in subtle and covert ways.

Organisational factors and academic research agendas: an analysis of academics in the social sciences

“…Research performance 1 has an increasingly central role in defining the prestige of contemporary universities and affects the level of resources academics can obtain for academic research (Levin and Aliyeva, 2015). Thus, it represents the triumph of Mertonian logic, and the full realisation by policy makers and institutional leaders that extrinsic motivations, as responses to field positioning and organisational incentives, function better as drivers of research engagement and production than the inner motivations of academics (Long and Krauze, 1982).…”

Shrinking Budgets, Growing Demands: Neoliberalism and Academic Identity Tension at Regional Public Universities

“…Through this study, it is our intent to expand this research by examining identity tensions of faculty at regional public universities in the context of a neoliberal agenda exacerbated by tenuous economic conditions, particularly the ever-increasing emphasis on research productivity at institutions traditionally focused on teaching excellence. Levin and Aliyeva (2015) have argued that in navigating their professional identity, faculty at regional public universities are the least protected from neoliberal forces since research at these institutions does not generate the same level of funds as at research universities yet faculty are still expected to produce and compete. As previously discussed, Youn and Price (2009) identified an increased focus on research productivity among faculty at RPUs in recent decades.…”

Competitividad de la educación superior en cuatro países de América Latina: perspectiva desde un ranking mundial

“…Lo mismo puede ocurrir en los campos institucional, local, regional, nacional y global; recordemos, por ejemplo, que las instituciones compiten por apoyos financieros, profesores, estudiantes y en los rankings nacionales e internacionales (Levin y Aliyeva, 2015).…”