Considering how sustainability research fits into the landscape of academic publishing and responding to a critique that half of sustainability research adds little to the field, Thomas Bauwens, Denise Reike and Martin Calisto argue that rather than be…
Category: marketisation
Facebook, the metaverse and the monetisation of higher education
Following the recent announcement by Facebook of its pivot towards developing a metaverse, John Preston, considers the role it may play in education and the potential it holds for the further monetisation and marketisation of higher education. The met…
Four reasons slow scholarship will not change academia
For several years the slow scholarship movement has gathered an international following in advocating for a more conscientious slower form of academic work. Arguing against this blanket rejection of acceleration in academia, Filip Vostal puts forward t…
A degree of studying – Students who treat education as a commodity perform worse than their intrinsically motivated peers
One of the pivotal transformations in the marketisation of higher education has been the introduction of tuition fees. A degree from a higher education institution can now, to some extent, be purchased like any other commodity. In this post Louise Bunce presents evidence that students who identify as consumers of their education perform worse academically … Continued
Book Review: Feeling Academic in the Neoliberal University: Feminist Flights, Fights and Failures edited by Yvette Taylor and Kinneret Lahad
Edited by Yvette Taylor and Kinneret Lahad, the collection Feeling Academic in the Neoliberal University: Feminist Flights, Fights and Failures offers a vital reassertion of feminist modes of resistance against the increasingly corporate structures of contemporary higher education. This is an incisive, timely and ultimately hopeful volume that provides a platform from which future feminist fights can take flight, writes Charlotte Mathieson. This review […]
The neurotic academic: how anxiety fuels casualised academic work
As higher education undergoes a process of marketisation in the UK and the activities of academic staff are increasingly measured and scrutinised, universities are suffused with anxiety. Coupled with pressures facing all staff, casualised academics face multiple forms of insecurity. While anxiety is often perceived as an individual problem for which employees are encouraged to take personal responsibility, Vik Loveday […]
Book Review: The Toxic University: Zombie Leadership, Academic Rock Stars and Neoliberal Ideology by John Smyth
In The Toxic University: Zombie Leadership, Academic Rock Stars and Neoliberal Ideology, John Smyth offers a critical reading of the pathological state of higher education today, diagnosing this as the effect of commodification, marketisation and managerialism. While those looking for a minute analysis of the crisis of the university may at times wish for more nuanced and detailed insight, this is an outstanding synthesis […]
Will David Willetts be remembered for progressive push for Open Access or pernicious effects of neoliberal academy?
Now that the cabinet reshuffle news has settled and Greg Clark MP, the new Minister for Universities, Science, and Cities has begun his tenure, we asked for further reflections on the positions taken by previous minister David Willetts. David Prosser covers the dramatic influence Willetts had on open access legislation and momentum in the UK. Lee Jones instead emphasises the escalation of […]