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V. Foreign Higher Education and Education Systems, International Relations, Bilateral Relations
B. Essays, Commentaries, Statements
Author SLAUGHTER, Sheila A. (CANTWELL, Brendan)
Title Transatlantic moves to the market: the United States and the European Union / Sheila Slaughter ; Brendan Cantwell
Publication year 2012
Source/Footnote In: Higher education. - 63 (2012) 5, S. 583 - 606
Inventory number 32246
Keywords Ausland : Europa : Hochschulwesen allgemein ; Ausland : USA : Hochschulwesen allgemein ; Hochschule und Wirtschaft
Abstract The theory of academic capitalism is used to explore US and EU marketization trajectories. Comparisons are made along the following dimensions: creation and expansion of intermediating organizations external to universities that promote closer relations between universities and markets; interstitial organizations that emerge from within universities that intersect various market oriented projects; narratives, discourses and social technologies that promote marketization and competition; expanded managerial capacity; new funding streams for research and programs close to the market; and new circuits of knowledge that move away from peer review and professional judgment as arbiters of excellence. We also consider the status of fields not closely integrated with external markets, and see fragmentation of the humanities, fine arts and (some) social sciences to be a sign of research universities marketization. We conclude that the US and EU are following very different paths to bring higher education closer to the market. The US move to the market was incremental and frequently led by a wide variety of non-governmental organizations, often with strong ties to the for-profit sector and participation by segments of universities prior to federal legislation or mandates. The European Commission is reverse engineering Anglo-American higher education models to reconstruct technologies of governance in uniquely European contexts that embed competition in nation-state initiatives. Although the discourse surrounding university marketization promises growth of high paying jobs prosperity, evidence to date suggests very uneven results for both the US and EU. (HRK / Abstract übernommen) Slaughter, Sheila, E-Mail: sheila.slaughter@gmail.com