Tracing assessment policy discourses in neoliberalised higher education settings

Abstract

This article explores assessment policy in two European universities with different political, historical and social backgrounds: the University of Glasgow and Tallinn University. The University of Glasgow is a well-established Russell Group university in the UK; Tallinn University is a relatively new university in post-Soviet Estonia, shaped by very recent neoliberalisation processes. By applying a Foucauldian theorisation and Faircloughian methodology, this article approaches assessment policy as not only relating to institutional contexts but also national and global policy environments. The article argues that the assessment policy in Glasgow relates to globally dominant neoliberal discourses of accountability and excellence. These discourses have turned assessment into a complex technology of government that manages educational processes as well as academic and student subjectivities. While Tallinn University is shaped by neoliberalism at strategic levels, the policy documents in Tallinn still indicate a strong sense of local tradition where regulations have a modest impact on academic freedom and assessors’ disciplinary power over students.

Keywords:

• Neoliberalism
• higher education
• assessment policy
• discourse
• Foucault

Acknowledgements

I wish to thank Prof Ray Land for his generous feedback on the earlier version of this paper. I am also highly grateful to Dr Fiona Patrick for her support and care during my doctoral research project. Many thanks to the anonymous reviewers and their constructive feedback on this paper.

Notes

1. The Russell Group includes 24 UK universities ‘which are committed to maintaining the very best research, an outstanding teaching and learning experience and unrivalled links with business and the public sector’ (Russell Group 2015).

2. All UK universities appoint external examiners to ensure the quality of the programmes. According to the HEA (2012, 12), ‘Generally there is an expectation that the external examiner will be an experienced academic with five or more years of experience of acting as an internal examiner, perhaps coupled with experience of being a programme leader’. There is no such role in Estonian universities.