torquetum

I have recently read Elaine Unterhalter and Vincent Carpentier’s 2010 edited book University into the 21st century: Global Inequalities and Higher Education: Whose interests are we serving? Here I shall summarise the chapters which were of greatest relevance to my interests.

Naidoo, R. (2010). Global learning in a neoliberal age: Implications for development, in E. Unterhalter, V. Carpentier (eds.) Universities into the 21st Century: Global Inequalities and Higher Education. Whose Interests Are We Serving? Basingstoke, Hampshire UK: Palgrave Macmillan.

Classical liberalism has as its central philosophy the freedom of the individual from the control of the state. The neoliberal form of government has deregulation, privatisation and competitiveness in common with classical liberalism, but considers the state to have a positive role to play in facilitating the workings of the market. Neoliberalism, as a framework for higher education, encourages a commodification of the output of higher education and encourages increased research output and high student pass rates. Under-represented groups will not be recruited as they will not contribute to the market-related interests of the institution. Similarly disciplines which are more expensive to teach are less attractive than cheaper ones to the institution. Effective teaching and learning are not encouraged by a neoliberal paradigm as good teaching is expensive in time and resources. Naidoo cites Bourdieu as referring to neoliberalism as an unquestionable orthodoxy, something treated as an objective truth. She argues that unquestioning acceptance of a neoliberal influence on higher education impoverishes all higher education by undermining the value of Bourdieu’s “academic capital”, but in particular developing countries suffer from the imposition of such a paradigm. Naidoo calls for “country ownership” of higher education with the foregrounding of the development agenda. She calls for the development of theoretical and empirical research to challenge the orthodoxy of the neoliberal agenda in education.

Do not treat this blog entry as a replacement for reading the paper. This blog post represents the understanding and opinions of Torquetum only and could contain errors, misunderstandings and subjective views.