From social rights to the market: neo-liberalism and the knowledge economy

Public higher education has a long history, with its growth associated with mass higher education and the extension of a social right to education from secondary schooling to university education. Following the rise in student numbers since the 1970s, the aspiration to higher education has been universalized, although opportunities remain structured by social background. This paper looks at changing policies for higher education in the UK and the emergence of a neoliberal knowledge regime. This subordinates higher education to the market and shifts the burden of paying for degree courses onto students. It seeks to stratify institutions and extend the role of for-profit providers. From a role in the amelioration of social inequality, universities are now asked to participate actively in the widening inequalities associated with a neoliberal global market order

Evidencing the impact of teaching-related CPD: beyond the ‘Happy Sheets’

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The Return to Final Paper Examining in English National Curriculum Assessment and School Examinations: Issues of Validity, Accountability and Politics

There are sound educational and examining reasons for the use of coursework assessment and practical assessment of student work by teachers in schools for purposes of reporting examination grades. Coursework and practical work test a range of different curriculum goals to final papers and increase the validity and reliability of the result. However, the use of coursework and practical work in tests and examinations has been a matter of constant political as well as educational debate in England over the last 30 years. The paper reviews these debates and developments and argues that as accountability pressures increase, the evidence base for published results is becoming narrower and less valid as the system moves back to wholly end-of-course testing

'Let the Right Ones In!': Widening Participation, Academic Writing and the Standards Debate in Higher Education

This paper challenges the frequently expressed concern, post-1992, that widening participation (WP) has contributed to a general ‘dumbing down’ of higher education in English universities *(Burke, 2005; Leathwood, 2010). In particular, it explores the implications of a long-standing ‘moral panic’ (Cohen, 1972) about the poor quality of students’ academic writing, particularly in the ‘new’ universities, which have been raised in various academic reports and countless media articles. A vampire metaphor is used throughout the paper to highlight ways in which assumptions about these falling standards in undergraduates’ academic writing feed on the foundations of a longstanding, albeit implicit, distrust of the growth in the sector on elitist, ideological grounds. The second half of the paper investigates how academic writing practices, whilst difficult to define, nonetheless wield a ‘disciplinary power’ (Foucault, 1980), over lecturers and students in the academy. This includes a discussion about how a situated, New Literacy Studies (NLS) approach to academic writing development challenges the view that students’ academic writing standards are falling. In contrast, the paper suggests that all universities have a responsibility to acknowledge and develop the different literacies that students, especially widening participation students, bring with them to university. (193

Guest editorial: the end of the British public university?

Purpose – This editorial aims to review key changes in the legislation that governs student finance in England, showing how these changes will have a significant impact on the concept of the public university in Britain. Design/methodology/approach – The assumptions behind the 2010 review of student financing in England are analysed in the context of key aspects of the political philosophy of the British coalition government, elected in 2010. Findings – While presented as an immediate solution to challenges in public financing, the introduction of full-cost graduate contributions will significantly affect the balance between the recognition of private benefit and public good in the role of the university as an institution. Practical implications – The review will contribute to informed discussion and debate for a key aspect of public policy in the UK. Originality/value – The review moves discussion from immediate concerns about the level of graduate contribution to aspects of the long-term structure of the higher education system in Britain