Universities Under Fire: Hostile Discourses and Integrity Deficits in Higher Education
Steven Jones, "Universities Under Fire: Hostile Discourses and Integrity Deficits in Higher Education "
English | ISBN: 3030961060 | 2022 | 296 pages | EPUB | 431 KB
English | ISBN: 3030961060 | 2022 | 296 pages | EPUB | 431 KB
This book explores the ways in which the contemporary university is talked about, and talks about itself. Focusing on English higher education, Jones documents how an under-confident sector internalised the language and logic of government policy, and individual institutions then set about normalising competition and gaming short-term advantage at the expense of collectively serving a common good. A flawed marketisation project was attended and sustained by hostile discourses, with purportedly woke universities becoming a soft target for right-leaning politicians and media commentators, and campuses reluctant battlefields for manufactured culture wars. Within this context, integrity deficits soon arose: universities bragged about diversity and social responsibility without commensurate action; global ambitions went unmatched by local accountability; senior management grew more distant and self-rewarding as contractual precarity increased for frontline staff. Jones does not call for a return to any
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