The Marketingisation of Higher Education

Abstract

AbstractThis chapter does not stress the marketisation of higher education rather focuses upon the way in which this is done; the marketingisation of higher education. I do not deny that widening access to skills that can fuel growth is a logical extension of a consumerist ideology. What follows acknowledges these structural changes and then focuses on how marketing is a consequence and reinforce of such structural change. Indeed there is a substantial literature which addresses it (e.g. Molesworth et al. Having, being and higher education: The marketization of the university and the transformation of the student into consumer. Teaching in Higher Education, 14(3), 277–287, 2009; Brown R, Carasso H, Everything for sale? The marketisation of UK higher education. Routledge, London, 2013). Nor does it support that marketingation has brought no or only limited contributions to higher education. The expansion of the privileges of higher education to the many from the few, the greater governance and transparency of the process and practices of higher education institutions in their compact with society and a clearer ways to evaluate these activities have, to varying degrees, enhanced higher education. These interventions have opened the market for world class universities (WCUs) allowing them global as well as local reach. Yet it is strange that these improvements are consequences of market interventions by Governments, by publishers in terms of league tables, and by employers in terms of preferred (mythical?) skill sets and not for educative purposes. The emergent practices encouraged by these interventions increase the influence of marketing and facilitate a metamorphosis of institutions from educational entities to market responsive service providers whose intent focuses on impact and enhanced return on capital. This leads WCUs into the endless and Sisyphusan striving, often devoid of any ultimate worthy end but ends which are an inevitable consequence of managing rapidly increasing competition and shifting demands effectively rather than educative priorities. The chapter describes and discusses the consequences.