1. The right students for the job-preparing university
An analysis of the dimensioning policy and its effects within the humanities

2. Conceptualisation of policy
Policy as performative  (non-predictable) ontological effects
Judith Butler (2010): ”Performative agency”, Journal of Cultural Economy 3(2)
Policy as an ‘apparatus’ = measuring agency = constitutive part of phenomena
Karen Barad (2007): ”Meeting the Universe Halfway: quantum physics and the entanglement of matter and meaning”, Duke University Press

3. Ethnographic Field work
Observations:
More than 30 meetings (study boards, advisory boards, staff meetings)
2 educational activities
10 conversations (staff members, heads of faculty, heads of degree programmes)
Interviews:
5 heads of degree programmes or faculty
3 quality unit members
2 representatives of national policy agencies
Documents:
Policy texts, reports, quality policies and guidelines, study regulations, press material, ministry communication, and much more…

4. Analytical take on value
Value as a doing = valuation:
Simultaneously assessing + labelling
Fabian Muniesa (2011): ”A Flank Movement in the Understanding of valuation”, Sociological Review, 59(2)

5. Analytical take on value
Value as a doing = valuation:
Simultaneously assessing + labelling
Fabian Muniesa (2011): ”A Flank Movement in the Understanding of valuation”, Sociological Review, 59(2)
Quantitative measure
Qualitative ‘story’

6. Analytical take on value
Analysis:
How do policies (=apparatus’) measure higher education?
What stories are being told about higher education and the humanities across the field?
What forms do the valuation processes materialise into – chains of valuation?
How is value negotiated?

7. Policy overview Policy Description Measure Phenomenon
The Dimensioning Model
Limiting enrolment based on graduate employment to prevent over-production
Graduate employment
The job-preparing university

8. The Humanities in the Job-preparing university
Unemployment rates:
2012
2013
HUM
22,8 %
21,6 %
NAT
12,8 %
12,9 %
SOC
11,9 %
10,1 %
TECH
10,0 %
10,9 %
HEALTH
4,0 %
THE HUMANITIES
Ministry of Higher Education and Science (2015)
”Aktuel ledighed 4-7. kvartal Uddannelsesvinkel”

9. The Humanities in the Job-preparing university
Unemployment rates:
High graduate unemployment =
Lower mass
2012
2013
HUM
22,8 %
21,6 %
NAT
12,8 %
12,9 %
SOC
11,9 %
10,1 %
TECH
10,0 %
10,9 %
HEALTH
4,0 %
THE HUMANITIES
Ministry of Higher Education and Science (2015)
”Aktuel ledighed 4-7. kvartal Uddannelsesvinkel”

10. Policy overview Policy Description Measure Phenomenon
The Dimensioning Model
Limiting enrolment based on graduate employment to prevent over-production
Graduate employment
The job-preparing university
Taximeter funding
Funding university teaching based on number of students
Full-time equivalents of students
The mass university

11. The Humanities in the Mass university
Growth rates :
HUM: 77,5 %
NAT: 68,0 %
SOC: 67,5 %
HEALTH: 32,0 %
TECH: 31,5 %
Source: Universities Denmark (2013) ”Akademikernes Arbejdsmarked”
Higher mass =
Higher funding
THE HUMANITIES

12. The Humanities in the Job-preparing university
Unemployment rates:
High graduate unemployment =
Lower mass
Lower funding
2012
2013
HUM
22,8 %
21,6 %
NAT
12,8 %
12,9 %
SOC
11,9 %
10,1 %
TECH
10,0 %
10,9 %
HEALTH
4,0 %
THE HUMANITIES
Ministry of Higher Education and Science (2015)
”Aktuel ledighed 4-7. kvartal Uddannelsesvinkel”

13. The Humanities in the Job-preparing university
Irrespon-sible (program + students)
Unemployment rates:
High graduate unemployment =
Lower mass
Lower funding
2012
2013
HUM
22,8 %
21,6 %
NAT
12,8 %
12,9 %
SOC
11,9 %
10,1 %
TECH
10,0 %
10,9 %
HEALTH
4,0 %
THE HUMANITIES
Not relevant
Low quality
Ministry of Higher Education and Science (2015)
”Aktuel ledighed 4-7. kvartal Uddannelsesvinkel”

14. Degree programme report 2015-2016, RUC
”The Dimensioning further means that it is not an option for the degree programme to grow its way out of these challenges [= a loss of staff]”
Degree programme report , RUC

15. Strategy 1: The professionalised humanist graduate
Respon-sible
Higher graduate employment =
Higher mass
Higher funding
Regain value through curricular changes
Relevant
THE HUMANITIES
Higher quality

16. Strategy 2: Recruiting ‘the right students’
Higher mass
Accepting the loss of the mass university for the humanities
THE HUMANITIES

17. Strategy 2: Recruiting ‘the right students’
Motivated
Effective
Excellent
Employable
Michael Tomlinson (2012): ”Graduate Employability: A Review of Conceptual and Empirical Themes” Higher Education Policy, 25 (4)

18. Policy overview Policy Description Measure Phenomenon
The Dimensioning Model
Limiting enrolment based on graduate employment to prevent over-production
Graduate employment
The job-preparing university
Taximeter funding
Funding university teaching based on number of students
Full-time equivalents of students
The mass university
Completion bonus
Financial bonus for timely completion
Number of students finishing within a fixed time frame
The graduate producing university
Study progress reform
Financial fine to universities that do not meet study progress measures
Study progress delay

19. Strategy 2: Recruiting ‘the right students’
Attractive
The right students =
Higher productivity + higher graduate employment
Higher funding
Efficient + relevant
THE HUMANITIES
Higher quality

20. Interview with head of degree programme, May 2017
”Behind all of this, there is a struggle to survive, and a part of that is that our students don’t drop out along the way, right? Because this is still an important key figure. And if they are motivated… and feel like taking the courses and finish on time – there is also motivation in those things, right? So if we find the right students, they will behave the way they have to behave in the system, right? That is what we have to look for. We can be idealistic in many ways, but we have to find the right students for the system.”
Interview with head of degree programme, May 2017

21. ”Dropouts are expensive after the introduction of dimensioning – it’s a waste of enrolment spots”
Document material: Slides on the quality system, SDU
”A delayed student with a mental health diagnosis was talked about as problematic for the key figures”
Observation notes, April 2017
”The dimensioning means half the number of students, and thus, most likely, to a lesser extend a social mix”
Observation notes, March 2017

22. Not a strategy available to all universities
Conclusion
The effects of the Dimensioning Policy:
Regulation  immediate devaluation of the humanities
Curricular changes  the professionalised humanist graduate
Recruitment strategies  recruiting ‘the right student’ = the resourceful student
Not a strategy available to all universities

23. Not a strategy available to all universities
Conclusion
The effects of the Dimensioning Policy:
Regulation  immediate devaluation of the humanities
Curricular changes  the professionalised humanist graduate
Recruitment strategies  recruiting ‘the right student’ = the resourceful student
End of the mass university? (within the humanities)
Implications on the position of the humanities?
Social implications?
Not a strategy available to all universities