This paper engages with Morsy, Gulson and Clarke's response to the recent special issue of "Discourse" (Vol. 34, No. 2) that examined evolutions of markets and equity in education. We welcome Morsy, Gulson and Clarke's supplementation of the special issue with the genealogical analysis they provide of private school funding in…

This paper represents the views of two scholars in the USA with respect to the scholar lecture presented by David Kirk at the 2012 BERA -- Physical Education and Sport Pedagogy (PESP) Special Interest Group meeting. We discuss how two unique features of the American universities have an impact on both the corporate nature of our work and our…

This commentary introduces David Kirk's paper entitled "Making a career in Physical Education and Sport Pedagogy in the corporatized university: Reflections on hegemony, resistance, collegiality and scholarship", which was presented in the 2012 Physical Education and Sport Pedagogy (PESP) "scholar lecture" at the British…

The article presents our response to some ideas presented by David Kirk in his 2012 Scholar Lecture to the Physical Education and Sport Pedagogy Special Interest Group of the British Educational Research Association Annual Conference in September 2012. We seek to present an alternate view to one aspect of Kirk's argument which supports a view…

This lecture considers how it might be possible to make a career as a university scholar at a time when the university is becoming increasingly corporatised. Consistent with the intent of the Physical Education and Sport Pedagogy (PESP) Special Interest Group (SIG) Scholar Lecture, I draw on personal experiences from my own career as a university…

Higher education in developing nations is typically viewed from a dependency perspective--institutions are seen as merely recipients of Western knowledge, aid and reform efforts. Nevertheless, universities in both the centre and the periphery are dealing with tensions between protecting the public good and embracing neoliberal values based on a…

"Selling yourself" through personal statements and interviews is now a standard practice for university applicants. This article draws on a multi-case-study research project to report on the self-marketing orientations of students within three 16-19 institutions in England. These orientations (active/passive; internal/external;…

Internationally, recent research has indicated that the health and physical education (HPE) curriculum has become at least to some extent "an open market", with rapid growth in the number of external providers and diversity of resources targeted towards schools and teachers. This research acknowledges that the programmes and instruction…

Around the world, increasing numbers of students receive after-school private supplementary tutoring. Such tutoring may be provided through informal channels or by companies, and it may be received one-to-one, in small groups or in large classes. The tutoring is commonly called shadow education since its content mimics that of regular schooling.…

Australia's higher education policy settings have signalled a shift towards marketisation. As a consequence, Australian universities have become increasingly competitive, and as they seek to compete for students in higher education markets, they begin to resemble commercial organisations. This article examines the challenges confronting the…

Policy-makers in the United Kingdom increasingly emphasise the contribution of innovation and entrepreneurialism to the economy. Drawing on a recent ethnographic study of a university commercial enterprise, this article examines the notion of entrepreneurialism in a higher education institution as understood and practised by its employees. The…

Private-sector institutions offering English for speakers of other languages (ESOL) in postcompulsory contexts are distinctive in terms of their dual nature: As businesses, their principal raison d'etre is to turn a profit for their owners and shareholders, but at the same time they are educational institutions that are expected, at least in…

This article problematises the recent "merit turn" in the Italian education system. It addresses the analysis of how the global idea of "merit as lever for modernisation" and its related technologies have flowed into a regional education space through a set of four policy trajectories. It explores how these have partially…

Higher education is rapidly expanding and diversifying across all regions of the globe. Much of that growth has been absorbed by the expansion of the private and for-profit sector, a trend that is particularly prevalent in Asia. Higher education is not only expanding but is also becoming increasingly global, with a mix of different corporate,…

This summary article situates the articles in this collection within the historical unfolding of the commodification and neoliberalisation of higher education. From the 1970s to the present, the article suggests that commodification and neoliberalisation are two social forces that in many nations are difficult to disentangle. It is important to…