This article explores Meyerson and Scully's concept of 'tempered radicalism' (1995) in the context of contemporary academic practice and identity. We report on a collaborative autoethnographic study which addressed the question: 'What does the concept of tempered radicalism mean to us as academics in contemporary higher education?' We explore how…

Public universities in the United States confront drastic changes as labour relations continue to evolve towards neoliberal managerial practices. Increasingly, faculty feel excluded from decision-making processes influencing their lives. This article provides a case study of Public Midwestern University (PMU, a pseudonym), where a faculty union…

Transaction, competition and opposition have become imperative in higher education. In this article, I will explore where to go from here building on critical pedagogy and ideas from students-as-partners and undergraduate research. Using the course 'Environments for learning in higher education' as an empirical starting point and approaching…

This article discusses the growth of neoliberal student activism in Brazilian higher education, considering the role of organisations called neoliberal think tanks. The following questions are addressed: why and how do these think tanks operate in the field of higher education? How do they articulate and promote student activism? The study…

The increased reliance of universities on a pool of highly skilled but poorly paid casualised academic labour for teaching and research has emerged as a defining feature of higher education provision under neoliberal New Public Management. Based on seventeen visual timeline interviews with academics in the North East of England, this article…

Despite the diversity of socio-political and economic contexts, educational transformations in post-socialist states have some common trends: orientation towards the 'West' and denial of the socialist past; marketisation of higher education through the introduction and extension of paid services, as well as promotion of competition for public…

This article investigates contemporary attempts to reform the institution of the university according to neoliberal ideological influences and oppositions to them. It employs Doreen Massey's concept of space to focus on relations and separations made in the process. My ethnography of the University of Helsinki's 375th anniversary celebration,…

This article examines the impact of contemporary higher education policy at a rural university in Japan. Hirosaki University, although a national university with an attached medical school, is far from the centre of academia in Japan, with a comparatively low ranking among national universities in Japan, and severe budget constraints. The policies…

This article aims to analyse the multiple ways in which the neoliberal regulation of knowledge is negotiated by returning Chilean scholars. The data gathered suggest the construction of knowledge is highly regulated by a principle of intellectual endogamy. Intellectual endogamy is characterised by conservatism, reflected in a lack of diversity in…

After analysing the organisational pathologies and societal ills created by the neoliberalisation of universities, the article engages in an organisational critique of the pseudo-business model currently in use. It poses as a solution the re-creation of universities as trusts, with a model of beneficiary ownership, a matrix form of organisation…

In both China and in the United States, policies of "positive discrimination" were originally intended to lessen educational and economic inequalities, and to provide equal opportunities. As with affirmative action in the American context, China's "preferential policies" are broad-reaching, but are best known for taking ethnic…

This article is based on our own experiences and that of several of our colleagues teaching social and cultural anthropology in different Dutch institutions for higher learning. We focus in particular on teaching and learning in two small liberal arts and science (LAS) colleges, where anthropology makes up part of the social science curriculum…

As an early pioneer of market-led institutional reforms and New Public Management policies, New Zealand arguably has one of the most "neoliberalised" tertiary education sectors in the world. This article reports on a recent academic dispute concerning the attempt by management to introduce a new category of casualised academic employee…

This article describes how different constituencies in a major research university tried to initiate change despite disagreements over common goals, norms and principles. The context was a culture war. The university administration wanted to impose a corporatising and privatising philosophy which it felt was crucial to preserving the university's…

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…