Using new research on higher education in the UK, Canada, Chile and Italy, this rigorous comparative study investigates key episodes of student protests against neoliberal policies and practices in today’s universities. As well as examining origins and outcomes of higher education reforms, the authors set these waves of demonstrations in the wider contexts of student movements, political activism and social issues, including inequality and civil rights. Offering sophisticated new theoretical arguments based on fascinating empirical work, the insights and conclusions revealed in this original study are of value to anyone with an interest in social, political and related studies.

Drawing on the perspectives of scholars and researchers from around the world, this book challenges dominant constructions of higher education students. Given the increasing number and diversity of such students, the book offers a timely discussion of the implicit and sometimes subtle ways that they are characterised or defined. Topics vary from the ways that curriculum designers 'imagine' learners, the complex and evolving nature of student identity work, through to newspaper and TV representations of university attendees. Reimagining the Higher Education Student seeks to question the accepted or unquestioned nature of 'being a student' and instead foreground the contradictions and 'messiness' of such ideation. Offering timely insights into the nature of the student experience and providing an understanding of what students may desire from their Higher Education participation, this book covers a range of issues, including: Impressions versus the reality of being a Higher Education student Portrayals of students in various media including newspapers, TV shows and online Generational perspectives on students, and students as family members It is a valuable resource for academics and students both researching and working in higher education, especially those with a focus on identities, their importance and their constructions.

This edited volume introduces readers to the relationship between higher education and transnational politics. It shows how higher education is a significant arena for regional and international transformation as well as domestic political struggle replete with unequal power relations. This volume shows: The causes and impacts of recent transformations in higher education within a transnational context; Emerging similarities in objectives, institutional set-ups, and approaches taking place within higher education institutions across different world regions; The asymmetrical relations between various kinds of institutional, commercial and state actors across borders; The extent to which historical and colonial legacies are important in the transformation of higher education; The potential effects these developments have on the current structure of international political order. Drawing on case studies from across the Middle East, Asia, Africa, Latin America, and Europe, the contributors develop diverse perspectives explaining the impact of transnational politics on higher education—and higher education on transitional politics—across time and locality. This book is among the first multi-disciplinary effort to wrestle with the question of how we can understand the political role of higher education, and the political force universities exert in the realm of international relations.

This volume serves as a critical examination of the discourses at play in the higher education system and the ways in which these discourses underpin the transmission of neoliberal values in 21st century universities. Situated within a Critical Discourse Analysis-based framework, the book also draws upon other linguistic approaches, including corpus linguistics and appraisal analysis, to unpack the construction and development of the management style known as managerialism, emergent in the 1990s US and UK higher education systems, and the social dynamics and power relations embedded within the discourses at the heart of managerialism in today’s universities. Each chapter introduces a particular aspect of neoliberal discourse in higher education and uses these multiple linguistic approaches to analyze linguistic data in two case studies and demonstrate these principles at work. This multi-layered systematic linguistic framework allows for a nuanced exploration of neoliberal institutional discourse and its implications for academic labor, offering a critique of the managerial system in higher education but also a larger voice for alternative discursive narratives within the academic community. This important work is a key resource for students and scholars in applied linguistics, Critical Discourse Analysis, sociology, business and management studies, education, and cultural studies.

Documenting the outcomes from three decades of transnational research conducted under the leadership of António Teodoro, this volume offers a robust scaffolding of the social and political context in which global education is being challenged by the contradictions of neoliberalism, globalization, deregulation, governance, and democracy. Contesting the Global Development of Sustainable and Inclusive Education presents outcomes from transnational studies conducted in response to global policies advocating the development of sustainable and inclusive education for all. Chapters map the impacts of globalization on education policy and consider how international organizations are shaping national education reforms. Focusing on questions of social justice, the volume asks how the neoliberal strategies enacted by national governments are affecting the work of teachers as well as curriculum, teacher training, and assessment. Finally, the text asks whether there are alternatives to financially-driven, competition-based reforms that might better position education as an action project for social justice. This volume will be of interest to postgraduate students, scholars, researchers and policymakers in the fields of global education, comparative education, and education policy.

This edited volume brings together exciting new research and ideas related to the ongoing internationalization of higher education, particularly in the Asia Pacific region, where this phenomenon has been rapidly developing in recent years. It also specifically focuses on analyzing the extent to which resurgent nationalisms from around the world effect the growth and direction of this sector of education. As cultural and political tensions rise globally, many are turning to educators and education researchers for suggestions on how to respond to this trend. This volume seeks to answer that call. Moreover, as authors share perspectives and data from a wide range of national and institutional contexts, the applicability of this volume extends beyond national or regional boundaries, offering questions, challenges, and lessons for educators worldwide.

Drawing on the South African case, this book looks at shifts in higher education around the world in the last two decades. In South Africa, calls for transformation have been heard in the university since the last days of apartheid. Similar claims for quality higher education to be made available to all have been made across the African continent. In spite of this, inequalities remain and many would argue that these have been exacerbated during the Covid pandemic. Understanding Higher Education responds to these calls by arguing for a social account of teaching and learning by contesting dominant understandings of students as decontextualised learners premised on the idea that the university is a meritocracy. This book tackles the issue of teaching and learning by looking both within and beyond the classroom. It looks at how higher education policies emerged from the notion of the knowledge economy in the newly democratic South Africa, and how national qualification frameworks and other processes brought the country more closely into conversation with the global order. The effects of this on staffing and curriculum structures are considered alongside a proposition for alternative ways of understanding the role of higher education in society.