Work, Identity and the Quasi-market: The FE Experience.

Abstract

The Further and Higher Education Act (1992) brought about the incorporation of further education (FE) colleges in England and Wales. This legislation effectively removed the influence and control that Local Education Authorities (LEAs) had over the educational provision of colleges and created a quasi-market in which local colleges were forced to compete for students and funds. My research involved an investigation into how quasi-marketisation impacted upon the work and lives of teachers, middle and senior managers in three colleges in the city of Coppleton in the West Midlands region of England. I was interested in exploring how quasi-marketisation affected staff at different levels within the colleges and whether dominant cultures emerged. My findings were that the managerialist practices that became widespread through the sector as a consequence of quasi-marketisation were deployed strategically within colleges; that marketisation served to place colleges’ self-interest over the interests of students; and that the quasi-market environment impacted on data in specific (negative) ways.