anu college of law markets in higher education:teaching versus research professor margaret thornton
Post on 28-Mar-2015
214 Views
Preview:
TRANSCRIPT
ANU College of Law
MARKETS IN HIGHER EDUCATION:TEACHING VERSUS
RESEARCH
Professor Margaret Thornton
Social Liberalism
• 20th Century political philosophy of western democracies, esp UK, Scandinavia & Australasia - egalitarian
• Social liberalism was committed to the common good – free higher education
• Government played a central role in minimising inequalities through progressive taxation, social welfare policies such as unemployment benefits, sickness benefits, age pensions, etc
2
Neoliberalism• Influence of Thatcher and George Bush (Snr) – public
institutions a drain on the state – savage cuts to higher ed – a global phenomenon
• Instead of the common good and public responsibility, focus shifted to private markets – eg, utilities, transport and higher education – the imperative in favour of privatisation unstoppable - widening inequality – competition policy
• ‘User pays’ philosophy; income generation • The market now the arbiter of the good, but role of
govt central – an intimate liaison -
3
CORPORATISATION
Definition: The application of business practices to universities to make them more like private businesses Commodification of knowledge – ‘New knowledge economy’ replaces primary resources & manufacturing.
Unis may relish the economic descriptor - academic capitalism, the enterprise university
– Competition – between countries, institutions & individuals; global markets in education - inequality
– Consumerism - Unis as ‘service providers’ have irrevocably altered the teacher/student relationship
4
The New Environment
• Neoliberal subjects - academics as well as students - promotion of the self
• Risk society – a corollary of the market– Unis seek to guard against through
managerialism & metricisation– Contractualism, precarious work –
disproportionate impact re gender– Increased workloads, stress - somatechnics
5
TEACHING - SUBSTANCE
• Shift from ‘know what’ to ‘know how’ Slough off theory & critique in favour of applied or ‘useful’ knowledge; technocratic– Resistance to interrogating the knowledge transmitted –
positivism & ‘right answers’ favoured – ‘job ready’, use value in market
• How best to serve the new knowledge economy• How to make the world safe for markets• Business-related; attack on humanities & soc/sci
6
PEDAGOGICAL PRACTICES
Reversion to lectures - Transmission of frozen knowledge – pre-packaged, economically rational
Small group teaching - sloughed off – too expensive in a mass system + interrogation & critique unfashionable
Theoretical, critical & feminist subjects less likely to be offered – students don’t want them on their transcripts Flexible delivery – eg block teaching – accommodate needs of customers, esp ‘earner-learners’
On-line & MOOCS – contributes to dehumanisation – obscures greyness & subjectivity of knowledge
7
RESEARCH
• Teaching must be ‘excellent’ but relegated to 2nd order• Research grants – incl consultancies• Research entrepreneurialism – ideal academic a
‘technopreneur’ - ‘technoscientific knowledge combined with business acumen’ (Kenway) – biomedicine & technoscience; international ‘stars’
• Knowledge transfer – commercialisation of knowledge– Pursuit of knowledge for its own sake (Newman) now
anachronistic. Instrumentalism & functionality• Productivity & performativity
8
AUDIT CULTURE
• Publish in international journals (dismissal of the local)
• Focus on metricisation & calculability• Rankings & league tables – standardisation;
sloughing off of diversity between institutions – measure up or face closure
• Indvidualised competition - global stars -Benschop & Brouns refer to as the Olympian model (masculinist) v that of the agora
9
DELINKING OF TEACHING & RESEARCH
• Privileging of research – status + income: Encourages competition & hierarchisation of unis – Russell Group v others
• The less time spent on teaching = more time for research - knowledge creation
• Grants: Buy out teaching time – encourages casualisation (feminised)
• Research -inactive: More teaching – a form of punishment
10
DE-LINKING of TEACHING AND RESEARCH
• Privileging of research: encourages lowest common denominator approach
• Teaching – mass pedagogies - lectures, on-line, etc; no time for theory or debate
• Assessment – short answer & multiple choice rather than research essays ‘take too long to mark’
• Role of ‘quality’ agencies• Encourages transmission of orthodoxy - ‘how to’,
positivistic & applied knowledge • Cf knowledge creation in research
11
Conclusion: A Hybrid Institution
Governance: Managerial, bureaucratised & top-down, not collegial or collaborative
Managers the new university elite - tell
academics, the ‘cognitariat’, what to do; NB - Masculinity of managerialism counteracts feminisation of the academy
•Markets + managerialism = hybridity – unis no longer public nor fully private
12
top related