Competition, innovation and diversity in higher education: dominant discourses, paradoxes and resistance

Abstract

This article explores the powerful yet contradictory role of neoliberalism, its competitive mechanisms and emotional logics. Theoretically, it reviews the shifting state-higher education-market nexus through the lens of a critical cultural political economy paradigm. Conceptually, it closely examines Davies’ work on the ‘logic of competition’ (2014) and Naidoo’s idea of ‘competition fetish’ (2011, 2015, 2018) to expose the material and discursive dispositifs through which nation-states, institutions and individual actors mobilize universities to position themselves in the global knowledge economy. The discussion is informed and supported by empirical evidence drawn from a doctoral project (2013–2014). The article aims to contribute to the extant critique of (higher) education by introducing the paradox of ‘polarized convergence’ as an instance of differentiation without diversity in the contemporary English university. Such paradox urges the re-visitation and broadening of the idea and practice of the entrepreneurial university to reinvigorate the link between competition, innovation and diversity.

Keywords:

• Neoliberalism
• competition fetish
• university
• polarized convergence
• innovation

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1. They will be allowed to award their degrees from the day they open (on a probationary basis); they will be able to obtain full degree awarding powers (DAP) within 3 years and to apply for university title 3 years after that. DAP and university titles will no longer be granted by the Privy Council but overseen by the new Office for Students; it upgrades their access to state student loans (currently set at £6,000) to £9,000 pounds; it reduces the size threshold (currently set at 1000 students) necessary to apply for university title (Times Higher Education, https://www.timeshighereducation.(com/news/higher-education-white-paper-key-points-glance).

2. Intended as efficient cause and desired outcome.

3. These are: M5 (Midlands 5: Warwick, Nottingham, Leicester, Birmingham, Loughborough and successively Aston); GW4 (Great Western Four: Bristol, Bath, Exter, Cardiff); and the most powerful: SES-5 (Science and Engineering South Consortium: Oxford, Cambridge, Southampton, Imperial College, King’s College and UCL).

4. Open Method of Coordination.