The changing value of higher education in England and Portugal: Massification, marketization and public good
The changing value of higher education in England and Portugal: Massification, marketization and public good
This article examines how the value of higher education (HE) is currently being (re)framed in two European countries: England and Portugal. HE has been central to a global discourse on the future of knowledge economy, whilst also being subject to the policy framework of New Public Management. Being so, the changing value of HE is related to the ways in which its missions are understood and must be considered within the context of massification, as well as of a growing importance of employability. Drawing on published research and also considering national policy documents and statistical data produced by international organizations, the analysis demonstrates how HE in these two countries is currently being (re)framed, recognizing differences and similarities that express national specificities, as well as exploring how these have evolved within the wider national and pan-national policy context. Overall, the examination demanded going beyond the marketization approach by complementing it with the idea of public good and leads us to stress the importance of the tension between these two approaches as an analytical framework to better understand the changes occurring in different national contexts, within a transnational framework in which the knowledge economy and the central role of HE seems to be indisputably accepted.
England, Higher education, Portugal, employability, marketization, public good
176-192
Gaio Alves, Mariana
8fc40f0d-7412-46a1-8a81-1ceef99fa31d
Tomlinson, Michael
9dd1cbf0-d3b0-421e-8ded-b3949ebcee18
2020
Gaio Alves, Mariana
8fc40f0d-7412-46a1-8a81-1ceef99fa31d
Tomlinson, Michael
9dd1cbf0-d3b0-421e-8ded-b3949ebcee18
Gaio Alves, Mariana and Tomlinson, Michael
(2020)
The changing value of higher education in England and Portugal: Massification, marketization and public good.
European Educational Research Journal, 20 (2), .
(doi:10.1177/1474904120967574).
Abstract
This article examines how the value of higher education (HE) is currently being (re)framed in two European countries: England and Portugal. HE has been central to a global discourse on the future of knowledge economy, whilst also being subject to the policy framework of New Public Management. Being so, the changing value of HE is related to the ways in which its missions are understood and must be considered within the context of massification, as well as of a growing importance of employability. Drawing on published research and also considering national policy documents and statistical data produced by international organizations, the analysis demonstrates how HE in these two countries is currently being (re)framed, recognizing differences and similarities that express national specificities, as well as exploring how these have evolved within the wider national and pan-national policy context. Overall, the examination demanded going beyond the marketization approach by complementing it with the idea of public good and leads us to stress the importance of the tension between these two approaches as an analytical framework to better understand the changes occurring in different national contexts, within a transnational framework in which the knowledge economy and the central role of HE seems to be indisputably accepted.
Text
EERJ final version 23 august 2020
- Accepted Manuscript
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Accepted/In Press date: 9 October 2020
e-pub ahead of print date: 1 November 2020
Published date: 2020
Additional Information:
Funding Information:
The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: The research work developed by Mariana Gaio Alves at Southampton University was supported by Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia (Portugal) throughout funding with the reference SFRH/BSAB/128269/2016.
Publisher Copyright:
© The Author(s) 2020.
Copyright:
Copyright 2020 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.
Keywords:
England, Higher education, Portugal, employability, marketization, public good
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Local EPrints ID: 444885
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/444885
ISSN: 1474-9041
PURE UUID: 87d3ae53-22ef-4148-8a18-d6a3f96aad09
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Date deposited: 09 Nov 2020 17:32
Last modified: 17 Mar 2024 03:26
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Mariana Gaio Alves
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