Policy Press

Modern Work and the Marketisation of Higher Education

By Gerbrand Tholen

Published

Sep 8, 2022

Page count

174 pages

ISBN

978-1447355281

Dimensions

234 x 156 mm

Imprint

Policy Press

Published

Sep 8, 2022

Page count

174 pages

ISBN

978-1447355274

Dimensions

234 x 156 mm

Imprint

Policy Press

Published

Sep 8, 2022

Page count

174 pages

ISBN

978-1447355304

Dimensions

Imprint

Policy Press

Published

Sep 8, 2022

Page count

174 pages

ISBN

978-1447355304

Dimensions

Imprint

Policy Press
Modern Work and the Marketisation of Higher Education

Over recent decades, national Higher Education sectors across the world have experienced a gradual process of marketisation.

This book offers a new interpretation on why and how marketisation has taken place within England. It explores distinct assumptions on the nature of graduate work and how the graduate labour market drives the argumentation for more market and choice. Demonstrating the flaws in these assumptions – which are based on an idealised relationship between Higher Education and high-skilled work – this book fills an important need by questioning the current rationale for further marketisation.

“This is a hugely valuable addition to the growing critical literature on the impact of marketisation on the graduate labour market. Tholen offers a comprehensive skewering of policy makers' reliance on human capital theory and employability discourses in the name of ‘meritocracy’ and ‘social mobility’.” Colin McCaig, Sheffield Hallam University

Gerbrand Tholen is Senior Lecturer in Sociology at City, University of London.

1. Introduction

2. Dimensions of Marketisation

3. Policymaking in Higher Education: Understanding the Economy

4. Policymaking in Higher Education: Understanding Work and the Labour Market

5. Policymaking in Higher Education: Human Capital

6. Graduate Work in Modern Capitalism

7. The Graduate Labour Market

8. Earnings

9. The Misinterpretation of Graduate Work

10. Conclusion