A Neoliberalism timeline: Morphing education from a public good into a private benefit.

A Neoliberalism timeline: Morphing education from a public good into a private benefit.

Thirteen years past, this month, I discovered the term “neoliberalism”. I had just begun in earnest the literature review for my second dissertation proposal. I scratched a note after reading the first article I’d ever seen that focused on the construct. That scribble wound up being footnote #9 of my final (Nix, 2009) draft: On the surface this would seem to be neither “neo” nor “liberal”; one has to wonder what “neoconservatives” would want for education (Nix, p. 26)[1].  That is as good of an introduction to the term as I can suggest, still today.

[1] Of note, I had not at that time encountered the term ‘neoconservatism’ and was unaware of the construct.

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This will be the first of at least two posts focused on neoliberalism and higher education but before continuing, I should define other terms. Most of these are lifted from my dissertation (Nix, 2009, Nomenclature, pp xxi-xxiii):

  • Academic Capitalism Universities’ and faculty’s increasing attention to market potential (Slaughter and Leslie, 1997).
  • Capitalism Economic and social system in which the means of production (or capital) are privately controlled.
  • Doha Round Doha Development Round or Doha Development Agenda (DDA) was the current (2008-9) trade-negotiation round of the World Trade Organization (WTO) which commenced in November 2001, in Doha, Qatar. The negotiations collapsed on July 29, 2008 over issues of agricultural trade between the United States, China, and India.
  • ES Educational Services.
  • GATS General Agreement on Trade in Services.
  • Globalization A continuing process through which regional economies, societies and cultures have become integrated through a global network of trade.
  • HEI Higher Education Institution.
  • IPR Intellectual Property Rights.
  • Neoconservatism Political philosophy which supports using economic and military power to bring liberalism, democracy, and human rights to other countries; originated in the U.S.
  • Neoliberalism Label for the resurgence or reformulation of classical economic liberalism. Opponents of Capitalism sometimes use this as a pejorative.
  • OECD Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development.
  • TNE Transnational Education.
  • UNESCO United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization.
  • WTO World Trade Organization.

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This specific post is for higher education professionals that might not be familiar with neoliberalism and how that has changed the education landscape since the mid-1970s. There are other scholars that have probably written something similar for their own fields.  I’m just discovering that many of my colleagues are not familiar with this construct, nor the consequences it has driven over the past 40 years.

First, a shout-out to a new professional colleague, Kyle Ashlee.  His post, shared on LinkedIn by a fellow Student Affairs Assessment Leaders colleague prompted an introduction (thanks Joe!), an email discussion which led to a video meeting, this post, and created the foundations of a research project upon which Dr. Ashlee and I will embark.   

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Neoliberalism (NL) has been around for a long, long time. A quick search on the Internet will explain its origins.  I’m not concerned with that historical aspect for this post.  I want to begin with a revival of sorts; tracing from that (mid-1970s) point will provide the focus that many educators should find helpful and useful. Neoliberalism’s revival can be traced to activities by both the U.S. and U.K. governments beginning in the 1970s. While Jimmy Carter and James Callaghan are remembered fondly in many cases, their collective reactions to political and economic turmoil began NL’s resurgence worldwide. 

Once President Nixon resigned, President Ford began deregulation, full force. Even though the Democratic party won the next election, deregulation and ‘market-driven’ were the rallying cries as the following list of legislative acts continued NL’s growing momentum in the United States. As we will see, this list (italic/bold emphases mine) can be traced to an intense co-mingling of government, industry, and education that has shown no sign of abatement since.

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The new administration continued:

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From this point on, clearly, neoliberalism established that government assumed the risks, while private organizations reaped the profits.  Future legislation solidified NL as the preeminent force dictating how universities would operate.

  • 1997: FDA Modernization Act of 1997 (PL 105-324) allowed the FDA to add official industry representatives to university and college advisory committees.
  • Cooperative Research and Development Agreements (CRADAs) grew out of the Stevenson-Wydler Technology Innovation Act of 1980, the Federal Technology Transfer Act of 1986 (FTTA, 15U.S.C. 3710) and Executive Order 12591, April 10, 1987.
    • After passage of the CRADA initiative, federal agencies were able to legally form R&D agreements with for-profit companies to commercialize inventions arising from federal laboratories

There are several scholarly works that provide excellent analyses (from 2000 up until the time I completed dissertation research) of the marketplace’s full-on advance into higher education (of course you could read my dissertation too). The main thing to know is that education has been classified (WTO/GATS) as a tradable service, not as a public good; that’s right, education is a private good. I list here, the pertinent works that cemented my understanding of the forces in play:

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  • Adelman, G. (2001). The globalization of higher education: Some observations regarding the free market and the national interest. Higher education in Europe, 26 (1), 47-52.
  • Altbach, P.G. (2002). Knowledge and education as international commodities: The collapse of the common good. International higher education, 28 (Summer), 2-5.
  • Apple, M.W. (2000). Between neoliberalism and neoconservatism: Education and conservatism in a global context. In Globalization and Education: Critical Perspectives (pp. 57-77), edited by Nicholas C. Burbules and Carlos Alberto Torres. New York: Routledge.
  • Giroux, H.A. (2002). Neoliberalism, corporate culture, and the promise of higher education: The university as a democratic public sphere. Harvard educational review, 72, no. 4: 425-464.
  • Knight, J. (2002). Trade in higher education services: The implications of GATS. London: Observatory on Borderless Higher Education.
  • Larsen, K., Martin, J.P. and Morris, R.(2002), Trade in educational Services: trends and emerging issues, OECD Working Paper, Washington, D. C.
  • Larsen, K., and Vincent-Lancrin, S., (2002). International trade in educational services: Good or bad? Higher education management and policy, 14 (3), 28-37.
  • Middlehurst, R. & Woodfield, S. (2004). The role of transnational, private, and for-profit provision in meeting global demand for tertiary education: Mapping, regulation and impact. http://www.col.org/colweb/site/pid/3108, (accessed May 24, 2006).
  • Slaughter, S. and Leslie, L. (1997) Academic capitalism: Politics, policies, and the entrepreneurial university. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Press.
  • Slaughter, S. and Rhoads, G. (2004) Academic capitalism and the new economy. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Press.

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The goal of this post was to lay-out a timeline, publicly available to any educator, conveniently accessible.  I will likely follow this up with a post that synthesizes my opinions based on other research and philosophical underpinnings of my formal advanced education.  As a working title to whet one’s appetite, Neoliberalism: The secret agent that confiscates agency is up next.

I hope you find this helpful.

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Higher Education, Learning, Neoliberalism, Reflection, Research, Student Affairs By Vincent Nix