Life for the student at a neoliberal university: a case study investigating the influence of neoliberalism on the experiences of higher education students

This study aims to develop an understanding of how students experience university life during neoliberal times. Literature which explains the influence of neoliberalism on higher education (HE) is reviewed. In addition, the social theory of Ritzer (2015) is employed to help understand developments in the HE sector. Whilst there is an abundant body of existing literature examining the impact of neoliberalism on HE, the experiences of students remain relatively unexplored. The research is philosophically underpinned by a constructionist ontology and an interpretivist epistemology. A case study research design is employed with semi-structured interviews and thematic analysis used to collect and analyse the data respectively. Throughout the project, the researcher attempts to occupy a reflexive position which emphasises the need for critical self-evaluation. Despite some participants rejecting the assertion that they were consumers of HE, the study finds that students are increasingly adopting a consumerist and instrumental orientation towards their studies and conceive of university as a means through which to enhance their career prospects. The research also finds that students are becoming increasingly performative and view their relationships with academic staff as transactional rather than pedagogical. This is to say that the experiences of students are increasingly neoliberal in character.

Citation

Elliot, M. (2023) Life for the student at a neoliberal university: a case study investigating the influence of neoliberalism on the experiences of higher education students. University of Wolverhampton. http://hdl.handle.net/2436/625522

Publisher

University of Wolverhampton

URI

http://hdl.handle.net/2436/625522

Type

Thesis or dissertation

Language

en

Description

A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements of the University of Wolverhampton for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy.

Rights

Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International

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Collections

Theses and Dissertations