neoliberalism essay final
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UNIVERSITY OF BIRMINGHAMPOLSIS, School of Government & Society (College of Social Sciences)
Student ID No. (srn): 1117509Programme of study: SPTYear of study: 1Module title: Social Theory: Knowledge and CritiqueModule banner code: Module leader: Justin CruickshankSeminar teacher:Submission date: 13/01/2014Assignment title: Is the neoliberal university still a universityExtension: yes date approved:Extension approved by:
David White new date: 27/01/2014
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Is the neoliberal university still a university?
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This paper will be divided into two substantive sections. In the first we outline the ideals of higher
education (hereafter HE), focusing on the thought of Dewey and Adorno. These two thinkers in their
approach to education - and their concern with the democratic status of society - bear many
resemblances. The educational ideals which they advocate bear similarity with a rich discourse on
the public role of the university. Furthermore, in Adorno's contrasting of the ideal education to 'half-
education', we will find a useful manner in which to frame the second section, where we assess
whether neoliberal reforms have fundamentally transformed the role of the University. Then we
turn to the state of the UK's HE sector, in order to observe the effects of neoliberal reforms. We will
consider how education is seen in a predominantly individuated manner, and that the introduction
of market forces has undermined the wider, public role of the University. When the current state of
HE in the UK is considered in light of Dewey and Adorno's theories of education, we will be forced to
conclude that the contemporary neoliberal university does not resemble a public institution;
advocated here to be integral to safeguarding the democratic status of society, and acting as an
agent of social justice. As a consequence, we will find the neoliberal university should not be
considered a university in the sense advocated here.
The Ideals of the University
While the university has a rich and extensive tradition, Collini (2012:23) explains it is "essentially a
nineteenth century creation", whose founding is symbolically located in the influence of Alexander
Von Humboldt. It consisted of a "liberal education with advanced scholarly and scientific research"
(ibid). The 'Humboldtian ideal' revolved around a cultured - or public - education (bildung), with a
civic emphasis; education was not merely a 'private' benefit to the individual, but bore a wider ,
social component (Collini, 2012; Sorkin, 1983). The university served a cultural, public function,
therefore Humboldt proposed education should not be viewed instrumentally; society's interests are
"best met by educating individuals to develop their unique characters rather than by subjecting
them to a stultifying vocational training" (Sorkin,1983:65). The needs of society should not be met
directly through state policy, rather through an open-ended approach to education (ibid:64). The
university was to be a community whose foundation lay "in a capacity to share in a process of
knowledge" (Readings, 1996:123), extending beyond the academy, thus enriching public discourse.
This public function of the University led him to advocate shifting financial responsibility for HE onto
the state, as it would "foster better, more 'enlightened' and 'moral' citizens" (Sorkin, 1983:65).
Moreover, Humboldt believed the importance of research alongside teaching in cultivating a
community which would instil civic habits in the individual. This approach is reflected in many
accounts, most saliently Kerr's notion of the 'multiversity'; HE was to be a plural sector, with
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teaching and research encouraged in a community which would make wider cultural contributions,
advancing society's 'trained intelligence' (Holmwood, 2011b). Because of this public benefit, HE
should be supported financially by the state. This public concern should be viewed as a staple
feature of discourses on the ideals of education, arguing for more than a merely vocational - or
functional - role. As Holmwood explains, for more than fifty years "there has been broad political
consensus on the value of higher education" (2011a:3), whereby education at secondary level, and
then HE, were seen as 'social rights' necessary for the realization of other liberal democratic ideals
(ibid).
Dewey, education and democracy
Dewey (1927) was writing at 'the birth' of the multiversity (Collini, 2012). Central to his account was
a political concern with the public sphere. Dewey argued the corrosive effect of corporate interests
on democracy, alongside the ideology of individualism, were undermining the associative nature of
the human condition, leading to undermining democratic conditions through an 'eclipse of the
public'. The mass media acts to distract individuals; "the political elements in the constitution of the
human being, those having to do with citizenship, are crowded to one side" (Dewey 1927:139).
Consequently the public loses it capacity to represent itself, increasing inequality through a
polarization of class interests. Dewey was concerned at the undemocratic effect this could have on
society, whereby an economic class are able to instrumentally draw on expertise in order to further
their own interests, at the cost of the wider public:
No government by experts in which the masses do not have the chance to inform the
experts as to their needs can be anything but an oligarchy managed in the interests of
the few. And the enlightenment must proceed in ways which forces the administrative
specialists to take account of these needs. The world has suffered more from leaders
and authorities than from the masses. (Dewey, 1927:208)
For Dewey, the problem of the public (and thus democracy) is the improvement of the public's
'collective intelligence' in order to facilitate informed debate; expert knowledge should not be used
instrumentally in the interests of a specific group, but rather, for the wider interests of 'The Great
Community' (Dewey, 1927; Holmwood, 2011b). Central to achieving this aim was an education
which fostered habits conducive to a public life, therefore HE was to play an important role
(Boisvert, 1998).
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Dewey recognises the explicitly social aspect of the human condition; the point of education was not
simply instrumental preparation for the immediate needs of the state - such as economic
imperatives - for it was not to be understood in purely functionalist terms. Following Humboldt he
rejected an instrumental approach to education, arguing it to be 'absolutist' in its methods, thus
"strengthening the reign of dogma" (Dewey, 1927:201) whereby expert knowledge could be used
instrumentally, attenuating the public's democratic role. Alternatively, Dewey proposes an open-
ended 'experimental' method towards education and inquiry, not directed by external interest,
which he argues will enrich the democratic culture of a society. This emphasis on autonomy from
social demands mirrors Humboldt's assertion against state interference (Sorkin, 1983). Similarly, he
advocates a place for the University in the promotion in "the inculcation of a democratic character,
not just training citizens' minds" (Boisvert, 1998:98). Because of this public role of the University,
Dewey considered it a site of social justice, enabling the public to better realize its democratic
potential. Consequently, he resisted attempts to reduce education to vocational training, as it would
exacerbate class differences; for wherever exists polarization, fixed distinctions, and few shared
interests between social groups, "the ideal of democracy is farthest from realization" (Boisvert,
1998:107). For these reasons, we can see a justification for public funding of HE; public benefits
accrue beyond the individual, moreover because of its democratizing potential, education should be
financially supported to enable 'the great community' to emerge.
Outlining Dewey's position has helped us to further identify some key features of the ideals of the
University. The importance of a non-instrumental approach to the University, emphasising a more
substantive education, is seen as having a public role in fostering a greater democratic culture in the
interests of greater social justice. Dewey held the belief that an informed citizenry was "the best
assurance that democracy would not degenerate into dictatorship or authoritarian regimes" (Giroux
& Aronowitz, 2003:8). The University had a critical function in inculcating democratic habits
conducive to the realization of the "Great Community" (Dewey, 1927:143), and thus resisting the
dangers posed by the 'Eclipse of the Public'. This argument bears a deeply normative justification for
supporting the university as a public institution, thus supporting Humboldt's argument for a role for
the state in supporting this institution financially. We now conclude our exposition on the ideals of
the university, by turning to Adorno.
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Adorno, instrumental rationality and half-education
The culture industry thesis (Adorno and Horkheimer, 1997:120-176; Adorno, 1991) reflects Dewey's
concern of the public being eclipsed by the interests of economic elites. While Adorno's writings on
the culture industry are pessimistic - we see little hope of realizing Dewey's 'Great Community' -
when he focused on education, we see many similarities with the ideals argued for here. Moreover,
his theory of half-education (1993) will be shown useful for framing the analysis of the condition of
the neoliberal university today. Adorno argued that at the very least, education should fulfil "the
basic conditions required for a democracy" (in Adorno and Becker, 1999:23), however, his theory of
half-education goes further. Adorno perceives education as the best way to foster "thought, critique
and resistance necessary for freedom" (Tettlebaum , 2008:144), and thus democracy. He
understands education in terms of the notion bildung; following Humboldt the term illustrates "the
sense in which culture can be closely linked to the idea of education or improvement" (Thomson,
2006:73). He puts forth a notion of a cultured, civic education which would enrich public life, and
thus democracy. Like Dewey, this was part of a societal process of enlightenment which enhances
democracy and increases social justice. Furthermore, his view of instrumental rationality undermines
public culture reflects Dewey's concerns with the public in eclipse. He therefore contrasts bildung
with halbbildung in two senses; firstly, in terms of public culture, secondly, on the individual level.
The university is therefore argued to have a central role in cultivating bildung.
Reflecting Dewey's concerns with the threat posed by an economic elite, he warns of the danger of
the capitalist mass media, and an instrumental, economistic ethos (instrumental rationality) which it
ideologically promotes (Adorno and Horkheimer, 1997; Adorno, 1991). These have grave political
implications, "giving rise to a widening uneducated and uncultured population" (Cho, 2009:86). The
result of half-education on the public is "[culture] overcome by fetishism of commodities" (Adorno
1993:28). The effect of this is most striking in the 'massifying' effect of the culture industry, which
reifies the thing-like nature of commodity fetishism into a 'common sense' worldview. The effect on
public culture is grave, for the half educated, unlike merely the uneducated, "hypostatize limited
knowledge as truth" (Adorno and Horkheimer, 1997:196), and thus are at once "intellectually
pretentious and barbarically anti-intellectual" (Adorno, 1993:36) - written as if certain Vice
Chancellors were in mind. It is thus more easily manipulated by the authority of experts, which in
Adorno's case leads to the perpetuation of class inequality. One can consider current debates on HE
- narrowly framed in terms of economics - as a symptom of this. For Adorno, as with Dewey, mass
culture attenuates the public's efficacy by undermining accessibility and its 'collective intelligence',
propelling it towards the level of half-education.
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While Adorno's prognosis in public culture is pessimistic, he argues the HE has a vital role in
preserving the notion of bildung, and inculcating it throughout culture (Stojanov, 2013). Retorting on
university reforms along lines of instrumental rationality, Adorno argued instead for reform which
does not "lead by the nose" rather, "gives priority to free and independent thought" (Adorno,
2000:5). He rejects the reduction of education to what is socially useful, which he terms 'practicism';
from which "the whole of modern positivism has its historical origin." (Adorno, 2000:55). Adorno
associates this with the Weberian notion of instrumental rationality. Arguing against this approach,
he favours substantive rationality; "the rationality of values, ends and possible attitudes towards life"
(Held, 1980:67). Education as bildung should therefore be associated with substantive rationality; it
reflects the ideals of the University as a public institution which goes beyond an instrumental
approach, fostering an informed demos and thus democratically enhancing society. Adorno (1993)
sees bildung in dialectical tension with its opposite, and it is the political imperative of the university
to contribute towards ensuring society does not submit totally to instrumental exigencies, which
vitiate democracy, freedom and autonomy. The threat of half-education is the instrumentalising of
values, into reified, 'thing-like' commodities whose only value is economic. For Adorno, the main aim
of education is towards a self-reflexive maturity which can resist the reification of consciousness
which mass culture promotes. The ideal of education is to enhance democracy against the threat of
fascism (Adorno, 1998). However, like Dewey sees with democracy, bildung is an ideal never fully
achieved, in dialectical tension with its antithesis (Adorno, 1993; Stojanov, 2013). The aim of
education is to foster, on both individual and public levels, a critical reflexivity toward instrumental
rationality, in order to resist its effects on society.
In summary, both Dewey and Adorno recognise the threat an instrumental approach can have. In
Dewey's notion of the 'absolutist method' we see similarities to Adorno's instrumental rationality
(associated with half-education). Moreover in their alternatives, the experimental method and the
full education of bildung, both writers recognise the threat that commercial mass media has on the
interests of the public, vitiating its capacity to represent itself. Both point to the University as a site
of critique for these tendencies within society, and furthermore, advocate an open-ended approach
to learning, which is not 'lead by the nose'. Collini (2012:26) agrees with this assessment of
education, arguing that open-ended enquiry has its 'own logic';
the imperative to pursue the fuller understanding of any subject-matter once it was
established as part of an academic discipline constantly tended to exceed and subvert
the imperative to meet immediate of local needs.
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This tendency within the academy represents a dialectical tension, which we can see reflects
education (bildung) in dialectical tension with half-education. This can also be observed in Dewey's
normative argument to promote an open-ended, experimental approach to education and inquiry.
Therefore, education should be seen as being a dialectic between instrumental and substantive
rationalities. In the next section, we will make our assessment of the neoliberal university based on
this dialectic of bildung-halbbildung. It is important to note that HE has changed significantly since
the inception of the university. The ideals which Adorno and Dewey point to do not represent an
ahistorical doctrine, rather, are aimed at fostering self-reflexive skills on the individual level, and a
culture conducive to public debate - thus ensuring greater inclusion. Moreover, by understanding
the ideals of education as characterised by substantive rationality, we have a means to argue for
"the highest aspirations and ideals" (Veblen in Collini 2012:86) of social justice, something the
neoliberal agenda considers a "category mistake" (Swift, 2006:19), and thus cannot be appealed to.
Following Dewey's lead, Holmwood (2011b) argues HE has a distinctive 'social mission' in reducing
social polarization - and therefore should be an agent for social justice. To this end, he advocates a
role for the state in publicly supporting HE; for in fostering a climate of open-ended enquiry, it
enhances the democratic status of society. Moreover, it is better equipped to generate forms of
knowledge which go beyond the logic of immediacy, and better equips society to resist the atavism
which both Dewey and Adorno forewarned as a consequence of an attenuated public sphere. Having
outlined the argument for a public conception of the university, we now turn to the contemporary
state of HE in the UK.
Assessing the neoliberal university.
Since the 1980s successive governments in the UK have implemented what can be understood as
part of a globalized, neoliberal agenda. The public sector has been subject to a series of reforms, for
which HE has not been immune; they set forth a trajectory which has eroded educational values
associated with the ideals of the University, emphasising the value of education in narrowly
economic terms (Collini, 2012; Holmwood, 2011a; McArthur, 2011; Levidow, 2006). Neoliberalism
has reframed understandings of the public good, leading to a fundamental transformation of the
state-funded public sector, and has attenuated the democratic status of the public sphere. Levidow
(2006:156) explains,
today’s neoliberal project undoes past collective gains, privatises public goods, uses
state expenditure to subsidise profits, weakens national regulations, removes trade
barriers, and so intensifies global market competition. By fragmenting people into
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individual vendors and purchasers, neoliberalism imposes greater exploitation upon
human and natural resources.
The rationale of neoliberalism could be described as 'market fundamentalism' - the dogma that
market forces are the most efficient means of providing all goods (Steadman Jones, 2012; Levidow,
2006). It is an ideological belief in the efficiency of markets, leading to increased concern with
'performance' - used solely to judge the value of the public sector. Curtis (2013) argues neoliberal
ideology has assumed a hegemonic status, where the 'privatisation of life' has created a new
'common sense'. This robs the capacity to recognise the public dimensions of social life emphasised
by Dewey and Adorno, and represents the dogma of 'absolutist logic' we have associated with
instrumental rationality. Steadman Jones agrees, arguing that despite poverty and social inequality
in Britain being at their highest levels for over a century, politicians and officials "operated as if
under a spell ...They found it increasingly impossible to think differently about economy and society"
(Steadman Jones, 2012:333). The spell of the neoliberal ideology, in keeping with the tenets of half-
education, appears to have reified "limited knowledge as truth" (Adorno and Horkheimer,
1997:196). It has instilled what Fisher describes as a 'business ontology', eliminating any
understanding of value in the ethical sense. Today, it appears "simply obvious that everything in
society, including healthcare and education, should be run as a business" (2009:17). This elimination
of ethical value - which Collini (2012) also highlights - should be understood as the triumph of
instrumental rationality over the substantive alternative, and as Steadman Jones highlights above,
has led to increased social polarization, thus impairing the democratic status of the UK.
Collini argues that in the years prior to the neoliberal agenda the ideals of the University (as serving
a social mission) "remained largely intact" (2012:33). This can be observed in the Robbins Report
(1963), which prefigured the mass increase in access to HE. While the report recognised the
economic contribution the University made, it was equally concerned with its 'social mission'; the
enrichment of culture, and a concern to break class inequality "by widening access and integrating
public secondary education with a system of public higher education" (Collini, 2012:6). In this sense
it can be seen as adhering to the ideals of the university adopted here. Even the later Dearing Report
(1997) - which led to the introduction of 'top up' fees - adhered to these values, whereby the public
benefit of education was seen to "extend beyond those individuals" (Holmwood, 2011a:9).
Consequently, student fees were seen as merely a "supplement to publicly funded higher education"
(bid). Whereas in the era of Robbins and Kerr HE was seen as largely a public good, under the
auspices of neoliberalism, education is increasingly conceived as a private good (Collini, 2012;
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Holmwood, 2011b) - seen most clearly in the arguments of the Browne Report (2010). This clearly
poses a threat to the social mission of the university, for it reflects a dominant discourse which
"tends to be structured so that the non-economic is equated with the private, the economic with the
public" (Collini, 2012:99), leading to massive withdrawals of public funding.
The 'top up fee' approach, implemented as part of the Dearing Report's recommendations, was
concerned with the effect student debt would have on the social mission of reducing inequality.
Therefore debt accrued by students was only intended to be a supplement. However, it contributed
to an entrenchment of class divisions (Levidow, 2006). McKay and Rowlingson explain that student
debt acts as a deterrent to students from working class backgrounds, and that the policies adopted
in the wake of the Browne Report "signal a departure from the goals of social rights" (2011:106)
which were central to educational reform in the past, and key to university's being understood as an
agent of social justice. Moreover, the Browne Report recommended differentiated student fees -
which Oxford's VC argued should be raised to £16000 (Garner, 2013) - exacerbating access and
inclusivity issues, and adversely affecting social justice. The variation of cost is likely to entrench class
divisions further, with elite institutions attracting predominantly upper class students (Holmwood,
2011a; 2011b; Mckay and Rowlingson, 2011; Reay, 2011; Roberts, 2010). This leads Holmwood to
conclude, "for the first time, the university is being addressed as an instrument to extend social
inequality" (2011b:12-3). Clearly, the intention of these reforms is to undermine the notion of the
university as a public good. Additionally, we can see that the social mission which Dewey and
Holmwood argue for, is lost as HE is subverted from an agent of social justice, to an instrument
extending inequality.
More than a decade before the Browne Report, Readings (1999:32) warned that the effect of
economistic-allly-minded reforms on HE threatens its role to facilitate a democratic culture;
The social responsibility of the University, its accountability to society, is solely a matter
of services rendered for a free. Accountability is a synonym for account in the 'the
academic lexicon'.
He forewarned that the University "is on its way to becoming a corporation" (1999:22), concerned
more with profit than its social mission. The Brown Report aimed to accelerate this process,
transforming all public funding in non-earmarked areas, "into funding by student fees supported by
a system of loans" (Holmwood, 2011a:9-10). McArthur (2010; 2011) comments critically on the
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'functionalist' manner HE is narrowly understood, solely in terms of its contribution to economic
growth, adversely effecting its role in social justice. When the cultural or the social are invoked, it is
only as a veneer to mollify the reductionist logic. Readings reference to 'accountability' also alludes
to measures such as the Research Assessment Exercise and its successor, the Research Excellence
Framework; used to assess 'research quality' and award funding accordingly (Shaw, 2013). Fisher
(2009) argues these signify neoliberalism's bureaucratic logic (or 'market Stalinism'). The
representation of performance subsumes actual performance; institutions alter their policies
reflecting this, leading to "more effort goes into ensuring [performance] is reported correctly than
actually improving [performance] (2009:42). Collini explains these "regimes of assurance" (2012:108)
have caused institutions to prioritise research over teaching, to the detriment of the student's
experience. Readings (1996) argues that the emphasis on 'excellence' is a consequence of the
increasingly corporatized university, acting as a floating signifier in a regime of discipline. It also
contributes toward league tables which Collini (2012) argues are largely vacuous exercises; used
largely to attract more fee-paying 'customers'. This has led to a "Champions League syndrome"
(ibid:108) affecting the sector - a particularly apt turn of phrase considering David Eastwood
described the University of Birmingham's recent award "was a bit like winning the Champions
League" (Eastwood in University of Birmingham, 2013). These regimes of accountability have
undermined one of the core functions of the university - teaching - and accordingly, should be
considered as revealing a strong tendency toward halbbildung in the area of personal development.
The issues we have highlighted suggest the university's social role has been recast in primarily
instrumental terms, and in that sense, reflect the critiques of Dewey and Adorno. The instrumental
and individuated manner in which education is understood under the neoliberal regime, can be seen
in the commodified manner in which a proponent of the Browne report describes what a university
student receives:
a high-quality product, provision of skills and experiences that will directly benefit the
student, and adding real value to them as individuals as they go through life.
Smith, 2011:135 emphasis added
The neoliberal approach to education appears very far from the ideals favoured here, suggesting HE
has progressively gravitated toward half-education. Reflecting on the transformation of the
University, Brown et al remark "higher education has become a global business" (2011:95). Indeed,
when the extent of the search for funding avenues become as innovative as Birmingham University's
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(see figure), it is difficult to distinguish universities from other businesses. This raises a problem for
its role as a democratic institution. There is a fundamental issue with the manner in which HE has
been reframed as a purely private good. If we recall Dewey and Adorno's views on education, we
notice how they stressed the contribution of education in a civic, as well as individual manner. Both
saw the social element of HE as crucial in countering the instrumentalising tendencies capitalism
economy imposes upon the public sphere. The university was seen as a countermeasure to the
democratic threat that an economic class posed, by enhancing the 'spirit' or collective intelligence'
and thus prevent the public becoming eclipsed. But when the benefits of HE - and indeed all social
life (Curtis, 2013) - become seen as strictly individuated and private, we lose from the public lexicon
the means with which to argue for its very existence. What is at stake, Collini writes;
is whether universities in the future are to be thought of as having a public cultural role
partly sustained by public support, or whether we move further towards re-defining
them in terms of a purely economistic calculation of value and a wholly individualist
conception of 'consumer satisfaction'. (2012:190)
Conclusion
In this paper we began by outlining an argument for a social role for the university. Building on the
work of Dewey and Adorno, it was argued education has a benefit enjoyed beyond the individual,
therefore should be seen as a necessary condition of a democratic society. In considering the
critiques they make of an instrumental approach to HE, we established the need for an education
predicated on substantive rationality - an open-ended 'experimental' approach, sensitive to the
myriad of values part-and-parcel of associated life. By elaborating on Adorno's theory of half-
education, we framed our analysis of the current conditions of HE. Focusing on the effect of
marketization upon how universities operate, we were able to identify the neoliberal rationality as
instrumental, and suggests the university is gravitating towards half-education. Moreover, by
considering the impact upon social justice that the increased student fees are likely to have, we
identified a fundamental challenge to the notion that the university is a public institution,
recognisable for its 'social mission' in furthering equality, and thus greater levels of democracy. For
these reasons, we must conclude that the neoliberal university operates along thoroughly
instrumental lines. This has had two consequences associated with half-education. Firstly, the quality
of education is likely to fall, due to the unceasing pressures placed on academics. Secondly, as the
university increasingly becomes a tool extending social inequality, we see public culture leaning
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increasingly towards half-education. As a consequence of these findings, we conclude that the
neoliberal university is no longer a university, in the public sense of the term.
Word count: 4375
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Appendix:
Figure:- Photograph taken from a recent University of Birmingham brochure, suggesting students, not content with paying tuition fees for the rest of their lives, can now continue to pay the institution after they die.
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