THE TENSION BETWEEN INSTITUTIONS AND ACADEMICS

DR ABDUL JABBARMR KAI KONG

MR MOHAMMED MIRZA

Marketisation Vs Marginalisation

Aims of this paper

Investigate the impact of marketisation on UK Higher education Business schools

Identify possible sources of marginalisation experiences

Explore the tensions between institutions and academics in aiming to develop teaching for international students

The times they are a changing!

My students have paid £9,000 and now they think they own me

The government has turned students into customers who have no respect for academics and refuse to work for their grades

Teaching at a university means constant pressure - for about £5 an hourI care about my students, but poor pay, discrimination and unrealistic

workloads are making me want to quit

Practice: Consumer culture in H.E.

It seems strange to talk about higher education in terms of service and consumers. Students say I’ve paid my money give me my degree.

If you are interested in knowledge stay. I find that the ambition and aspiration it's not there

I see students more predominantly with non-white ethnic backgrounds who have the attitude, I have paid for this, where is my degree?”

They are buying an education and it’s not for them...... then they will get their degree, there is little individual sense of responsibility.

Literature: Consumerisation of H.E

Students as consumers (Lomas, 2007)

Corporate culture permeating in H.E (Meyer, 2002)

Consumer behavior & increased stress levels (Thorsen, 1996)

Have a degree rather than be learners (Molesworth, 2009)

The concept of value (Woodall, 2014)

Findings: Three themes

Value for Money Admission criteria Academic stress

Consumerisation

Results – Value for Money

If students end up with a mediocre degree they feel they have not received fair value. They think that they’ve been sold or they bought a poor product.

Students are like traditional customers they want value for money or they are going to complain

It’s certainly different from when I started. The biggest change is how students fund their higher education now.

Results – Admissions Criteria

For me, I don't think we should sacrifice....we should sacrifice the short term profit to keep the long term quality of the students.

I think maybe because the university tries to recruit more international students and faster

When the bottom line is if the institution doesn’t make enough money and isn't viable then it's not going to exist

We are dropping Criteria to meet targets.Sometimes we admit poorer students to increase revenue

Results – Academic stress

To be honest in the last couple of years, with the workloads that academics have I've kind of been thinking romantically about how better being a farmer was.

At the moment I'm feeling very stressed, feeling pressured, quite in a very demanding role.

I think the University want more and more staff to be returnable from the research assessment so they give pressure; they give stress to the University staff.

It's the volume of work which is really heavy to the point where sometimes I have to walk so fast to get to your destination faster so you can get on

Key findings

Academics are uncomfortable with this process of Marketisation. Many have had to re-evaluate the concept of teaching from knowledge transfer, to knowledge as a consumable product.

Increased marketization can lead to potential academic marginalisation. There is now pressure to meet recruitment and income targets at the expense of admission criteria.

Increasingly students are displaying consumer-like behavior with an increased level of expectation with the view that degrees have been “bought” and “paid” for.

Academics lament that students have lost the passion to learn. A degree is seen as a product, the acquisition, retention and utilisation of knowledge is now no longer a priority.

Any Questions?

References

Lomas, L., 2007. Are Students Customers? Perceptions of Academic Staff. Quality in Higher Education, 13(1), pp.31–44. Available at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13538320701272714.

Woodall, T., Hiller, A. & Resnick, S., 2014. Making sense of higher education: students as consumers and the value of the university experience. STUDIES IN HIGHER EDUCATION, 39(1), pp.48–67. Available at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/03075079.2011.648373.

Molesworth, M., Nixon, E. & Scullion, R., 2009. Having, being and higher education: the marketisation of the university and the transformation of the student into consumer. Teaching in Higher Education, 14(3), pp.277–287. Available at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13562510902898841.

De Vita, G. & Case, P., 2003. Rethinking the internationalisation agenda in UK higher education. Journal of Further and Higher Education, 27(4), pp.383–398. Available at: http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/0309877032000128082.

Macdonald, C. & Stratta, E., 2001. From Access to Widening Participation: responses to the changing population in Higher Education in the UK. Journal of Further and Higher Education, 25(2), pp.249–258.