Synopses & Reviews
As Graeme Atherton shows in this timely book, the economistic way of thinking about social mobility favored by politicians and academics is narrow, unsustainable, and actually contributes to rising inequality. Atherton offers an alternative vision of social mobility based on improving overall well-beingnot just income or occupationand provides a road map to achieve it. After examining how the term social mobility structures our understanding of successand the impact that understanding has on societyAtherton outlines a holistic approach that encompasses education, economics, and politics. In so doing he recasts the relationship between employees and employers, embracing radical opportunities provided by technology; rethinks the very nature of higher education; and looks beyond employment to incorporate progress in non-work areas of life. An innovative take on one of the key issues facing twenty-first century society, this book provides valuable insights for policy makers and academics.
Synopsis
The marketisation of higher education is a growing worldwide trend. Increasingly, market steering is replacing or supplementing government steering. Tuition fees are being introduced or increased, usually at the expense of state grants to institutions. Grants for student support are being replaced or supplemented by loans. Commercial rankings and league tables to guide student choice are proliferating with institutions devoting increasing resources to marketing, branding and customer service. The UK is a particularly good example of this, not only because it is a country where marketisation has arguably proceeded furthest, but also because of the variations that exist as Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland increasingly diverge from England.
In Everything for Sale, Roger Brown argues that the competitive regime that is now applicable to our Higher Education system was the logical, and possibly inevitable, outcome of a process that began with the introduction of full cost fees for overseas students in 1980. Through chapters including:
- Markets and Non-Markets
- The Institutional Pattern of Provision
- The Funding of Research
- The Funding of Student Education
- Quality Assurance
- The Impact of Marketisation: Efficiency, diversity and equity;
He shows how the evaluation and funding of research, the funding of student education, quality assurance, and the structure of the system have increasingly been organised on market or quasi-market lines.
As well as helping to explain the evolution of British higher education over the past thirty years, the book contains some important messages about the consequences of introducing or extending market competition in universities' core activities of teaching and research.
This timely and comprehensive book is essential reading for all academics at University level and anyone involved in Higher Education policy.
About the Author
Graeme Atherton has been working to promote access to higher education and social mobility for nearly twenty years. As chair of the European Access Network's World Congress on Access to Post-Secondary Education, he is leading a global movement to open up opportunities for learners to benefit from education over the life course and across the world.
Table of Contents
Introduction
Why we need a new theory of social mobility
Rising, Falling or staying the same? The academic discourse on social mobility
Unpicking the political consensus on social mobility
Breaking the Attainment Addiction
Unbundling, diversification and ecological: New models for Higher Education
Hourglass, molecule or pyramid? Social mobility and the labour market
Social Mobility, well-being and class
A new politics for social mobility
Conclusions: Re-framing social mobility