HIGHER EDUCATION, MARKETS, AND AN AUDIT CULTURE

Abstract

The author discusses the ways in which certain elements of conservative modernization impact higher education, pointing to the growth of commodifying logics and the audit culture that accompanies them. We should not assume that these conditions can be reduced to simple formulas. We need a much more complex picture of class relations and class projects. Finally, he points that may be elements of good sense as well as bad sense in the neo-liberal and neo-conservative criticisms. The issue is not whether or not we need accountability, but the logics of accountability that tend now to guide the process of higher education. An alternative to the external imposition of targets, performance criteria and quantifiable outcomes is proposed, together with some criteria that can be used to judge it.