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

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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 -

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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