2014 Hans O. Mauksch Address: Neoliberalism and Higher Education

Abstract

This article argues that neoliberalism is a critical public issue influencing the apparently private troubles of college students and teachers. For example, earning a college degree has become ever more important for success; yet, because of declining state support for public education, students are taking on extraordinary levels of debt. As a result, learning is being pushed aside by vocational and other considerations that result from neoliberal policy imperatives. For teachers, the decline of the tenure system means fewer full-time faculty members to do more work and fewer people who have the protection to speak out against neoliberal excess. Unless sociology teachers (along with teachers in other disciplines) do something to change the current system, higher education will continue to decline.