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Mass to Market Higher Education Systems: New Transition or False Dawn? Peter Scott Professor of Higher Education Studies Centre for Higher Education Studies

My argument – in brief  Mass higher education systems were developed in the context of the ‘welfare state’ / ‘social market. But since the 1980s new socio-economic (and ideological) conditions have emerged – and HE systems have struggled to adapt  Higher education systems seem to be evolved towards the ‘market’ – student fees, institutional competition, the global knowledge economy and new organisational cultures (‘managerialism’). But what kind of ‘market’? 3

Plan of presentation ① Mass higher education – and its discontents ② The ‘neo-liberal turn’ ③ Evolution of mass higher education systems ④ Drivers of massification – and marketisation ⑤ Conclusions and reflections 4

Mass higher education – and its discontents  Failure (slowness?) to deliver equal opportunities  ‘Crisis’ of affordability  Dumbing-down: academic quality at risk? 5

The 'neo-liberal 'turn' 1. Welfare State >>> market state 2. Globalisation (& commodification?) 3. The communications revolution / mediatisation of politics & culture 6

Evolution of mass HE systems  Drift towards ‘cost-sharing’, i.e. (higher) student fees  Transformation of organisational cultures:  Autonomy – and managerialism  The ‘entrepreneurial university’  National systems >>> ‘market’ networks  Changing student cultures – and the new graduate class 7

Drivers of mass higher education  Final stages in the educationa revolution (elementary >> secondary >> higher)  Opening-up traditional professions – servicing new professions (‘public sector’)  The ‘spirit of the age’ – social solidarity, modernisation and the Cold War 8

Drivers of ‘market’ higher education  The knowledge economy – and more intense (& global) competition  Narratives of (scientific) production – and (student) consumption  The market state, public austerity and alternative funding 9

Conclusions & reflections  The impact of the ‘external’: HE in its socio-economic politico-cultural setting  Continuities between mass and ‘market’ systems  Rise of the para-State / out-sourcing and privatisation 10