Neoliberalism and its impact on academics: a qualitative review

ABSTRACT

The changes produced in higher education as a consequence of neoliberal influences have had a considerable impact on the university world. As a consequence, there has been a growing research interest in how such changes have affected academics. However, recent review studies related to this issue are scarce in the literature. Therefore, this systematic review aims to provide a general overview of the way in which these new changes in higher education have had an impact on teachers. To this end, a bibliographic search was conducted on the Web of Science, SCOPUS, and Education Resources Information Centre, which yielded a total of 38 articles published in international journals. Thematic analysis was applied using the NVivo 12 software package, from which three emerging themes were identified: action strategies in view of new neoliberal demands; construction of the professional identities; and work, health and social consequences. Further, this review highlighted the need for more research on the influence of the closest social context (research team/department) on academic staff; as well as the development of systematic reviews of the literature that go deeper into the processes of construction and development of new professional identities.

KEYWORDS:

• Academics
• higher education
• academic work
• neoliberalism
• systematic review

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This work has been funded by the State Research Agency, Ministry of Science and Innovation (Spain), through the project ‘The influence of neoliberalism on academic identities and the level of professional satisfaction’ (PID2019-105631GA-I00); and by the R+D+i Project in the framework of the FEDER Operational Programme ‘Early career academics in Andalusian Universities: Academic identities, quantified and digitised.’ (B_SEJ-534-UGR20). It also receives funding from the Ministry of Universities (Spain) through the University Teacher Training Grants Programme (FPU19/00942).

Notes on contributors

Javier Mula-Falcón

Javier Mula-Falcón is a teacher and researcher at the University of Granada. His main line of research focuses on professional identities, higher education and educational policy. He is member of FYDAD research group (Training, Development and Teaching).

Katia Caballero

Katia Caballero is Associate Professor at University of Granada. Her main line of research focuses on academic identities, professional development and educational leadership. She is member of the research group FYDAD (Training, Development and Teaching) and is involved in actions for internationalisation.