Neo-Liberalism and Marketisation: The Implications for Higher Education

Abstract

The massification of education in European countries over the last 100 years has produced cultures and societies that have benefited greatly from state investment in education. However, to maintain this level of social and economic development that derives from high quality education requires continual Sate investment. With the rise of the new-right, neo-liberal agenda, there is an attempt to offload the cost of education, and indeed other public services such as housing, transport, care services etc., on to the individual. There is an increasing attempt to privatise public services, including education, so that citizens will have to buy them at market value rather than have them provided by the State. This development is recognised by scholars across a range of fields, including those working within bodies such as the World Bank

Governing the academic subject: Foucault, governmentality and the performing university

“…And such concerns, of course, echo a range of similar anxieties voiced since the mid-1990s (Ball, 1994;McNair, 1997;Trowler, 1998;Doring, 2002;Lynch, 2006;Bastalich, 2010).…”

Pedagogy, empowerment and discipline: comparative perspectives of novice teachers in England and Turkey reflecting on ‘the other’

“…This highlights the contested discourse at the heart of EU education policy (Dale and Robertson 2009), as both member and candidate member states attempt to enact a twin-track policy addressing both the economic EU model of neo-liberal 'economic dynamism' (Lynch 2006) and the 'European Social Model' emphasising social welfare, human rights and democracy and community cohesion (Giddens 2007;Rasmussen et al 2009). As EU membership changes, so does the social, cultural and political context, and so both national and supranational educational policy developments will continue to develop in an increasingly fluid, dynamic way (Novoa 2001;Lawn 2002).…”

University Restructuring in East Asia: Trends, Challenges and Prospects

“…In fact, commercial university rankings have existed in the West for a number of years, while official evaluations, such as the Research Assessment Exercise (RAE) and Teaching Quality Assurance (TQA) in the United Kingdom, have emerged since the early 1990s. Though there are criticisms that many of these ranking exercises are still far from systemic and scientific (Lynch, 2006), they are taken seriously by many governments and universities in East Asia and their influences are expanding rapidly in the academic field of the region (Mok, 2007). This is not exaggerated if we recognize that some Asian governments, like those of Taiwan, mainland China and South Korea, take higher ranks in global league tables as their goals of higher education development (Chen & Lo, 2007;Ngok & Guo, in this issue;BrainKorea21 (BK21), 2007).…”

“…[1] Meanwhile, university systems and related sectors in the region are attempting to produce their own global ranking systems. The league tables produced by Asiaweek, a respected Hong Kongbased magazine, and Shanghai Jiao Tong University are examples of the emerging marking systems in the university sector in East Asia, though the former was 'so widely criticized that it stopped' (Altbach, 2004), and the latter is criticized that it narrowly and selectively focuses on sciences and engineering but neglects arts, humanities and social sciences (Lynch, 2006).…”

“…Though there are definitions to be given, the dilemma is about the value of local dimensions under the strong trends of regionalization and globalization together with market fundamentalism. On the one hand, academics are warning of the 'McDonaldization' of higher education and the practices of devaluing academics' national and local studies in their own languages (Hayes & Wynyar, 2002;Lynch, 2006). It is believed that internationalization does not necessarily mean surrendering to the homogeneity of the international standard and giving up a distinctive cultural framework.…”