Effects Of Neoliberalism On Higher Education

Neoliberalism and Higher Education In today’s society, neoliberalism has become one of the most dominant ideologies that developed from long-standing practices in the United States. There is a history of many different types of economic powers that rule the way people live and survive and neoliberalism is one of the most influential. As history puts it “the neoliberal revolution usually attributed to Reagan and Thatcher after 1979 and had to be accomplished by democratic means” (Harvey 2005:39). Primarily to win elections, this revolution was put in place to win over political consent. Dating back to the 1970s, this ideology has made its impact on many different institutions and ways of life. The extent to which neoliberalism has grown to
A simpler way of viewing neoliberalism is referring to it as a set of economic and political policies based on a strong belief in the valuable effects of the free market. The valuable effects are not very obvious when looking at situations like trying to gain a higher education for oneself. It is clearer now than in the 1970’s that, to be successful and establish class power and exercise your individual rights, you need to gain a higher education. Without education, you are no real use to the
The Neoliberal goal is to keep the state separate from as much as they can while taking formally public goods and privatize them. A good slogan for this act of privatization could be to “get the government off our back”. Harvey lays out the aim of neoliberalism privatization as “privatization and deregulation combined with competition, it is claimed, to eliminate bureaucratic red tape, increase efficiency and productivity, improve quality, reduce costs…”(2005:65). It the neoliberal goal to compete and, at the same time, improve the quality of something without boosting costs. This is not evident in the subject of higher education. Through the privatization of universities, the fees go up, classes are less accessible, and educators are paid less and offered less work. “Forty years of privatization, stagnant wages, a weak economy, a lack of jobs, and budget cuts have forced college administrators to find alternative forms of funding. These alternatives have involved everything from licensing agreements with Coca-Cola and Disney and the corporate sponsoring of research to a pedagogical emphasis on job preparation” (Ganido 2014). Colleges have to reach out for funding because the state is not involved to fund their needs. The way things are working under the neoliberal means is not allowing a good enough budget to contribute to