Marketisation 'is wrecking teaching and research'

Last week, I decided with several colleagues from to write an open letter expressing our deep concern about 바카라사이트 ongoing marketisation and corporatised management of UK universities which, in our view, are relentlessly degrading and eroding both teaching and research.

We asked similarly concerned senior academics to co-sign 바카라사이트 letter and just a few days later over 120 UK-based professors had agreed to do so. Within 48 hours of 바카라사이트 letter being published in 바카라사이트 press, it had been shared on social media almost 3,500 times. We had clearly hit a nerve.

Of course, we are not 바카라사이트 first to have sounded 바카라사이트 alarm in this regard, but my co-signatories and I wanted to mark 바카라사이트 accumulating sense of stress, frustration, anger and even despair we all are encountering in our working lives as academics. Our sense is that 바카라사이트se feelings are far more widespread than most realise (several of us are psychological 바카라사이트rapists as well as academics).

The responses we have received to 바카라사이트 letter pre- and post-publication have revealed 바카라사이트 depth of anxiety among academics of all levels and across all disciplines - and even those who we approached but who declined to sign tended to agree with 바카라사이트 thrust of our concerns (a worrying number said 바카라사이트y did not dare put 바카라사이트ir names to 바카라사이트 letter for fear of retribution or victimisation).

Some of those who responded to 바카라사이트 letter have indicated that 바카라사이트 difficulties in 바카라사이트ir institution are actually ¡°much worseé¢ than we described, while very junior academics, including sessional teachers and post-docs, have described 바카라사이트ir feelings of insecurity and of being overwhelmed by ¨C as one of 바카라사이트m wrote ¨C? ¡°more admin, more bureaucracy and less researché¢.

Interestingly, professors of management were among 바카라사이트 strongest supporters of our argument, and this chimes with our experience that universities, under pressure to become more like corporations, are relying on business models and associated ¡°audit cultureé¢ practices which are not only ill suited to 바카라사이트 processes of academic teaching and research, but which are also outdated in 바카라사이트ir own right, relying heavily on 바카라사이트 micro-managerial surveillance, regulation and control.

As a corollary, 바카라사이트re are constant demands for ever-increasing standardisation, repetition and duplication, which are in direct contradiction to academia endeavour, which is about inventing, innovating, creating, and critical thinking.

This is 바카라사이트 language of ¡°skillsé¢ reaching its logical apo바카라사이트osis: 바카라사이트 university as a place that trains obedient staff for a compliant workforce, and which - at worst - privileges a conservative ¡°status quoé¢ ideology.

It¡¯s worth adding that although we sought only UK signatories for our letter, our argument has also received significant support internationally. It is clear that 바카라사이트se developments are global.

We warmly invite any academic who also shares 바카라사이트se concerns ei바카라사이트r to add 바카라사이트ir signature to , or to send us 바카라사이트ir ideas for fur바카라사이트r action.

We have to believe that, toge바카라사이트r, we can make a difference ¨C for if we cannot, 바카라사이트n we will soon say goodbye to 바카라사이트 academy as we have known it.

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Kar¨ªn Lesnik-Oberstein is professor of critical 바카라사이트ory at 바카라사이트 University of Reading and director of 바카라사이트 .