Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-wq2xx Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-23T12:27:33.117Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Opening universities’ doors for business? Marketization, the search for differentiation and employability in England

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 June 2020

NICCOLO DURAZZI Open the ORCID record for NICCOLO DURAZZI [Opens in a new window]
NICCOLO DURAZZI*
Affiliation:
School of Social and Political Science, University of Edinburgh, email: niccolo.durazzi@ed.ac.uk
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The article investigates the causes and consequences of the increased engagement of British universities with employability and skills initiatives. By employing case studies of six universities based in England, it asks whether the increased engagement between higher education and the labour market is driven by universities or business and whether such engagement has increased the diversity of the higher education sector. Findings suggest that the alignment between labour market needs and educational provision in universities is strongly mediated by the competitive environment within which higher education institutions have been operating since the late 1990s: the higher education market – not the labour market – is the key driver for universities to engage in employability and skills initiatives. The article also questions the assumption that ‘competition’ leads to ‘differentiation’ in higher education. Rather, isomorphic tendencies seem to prevail over differentiation in the context of a highly competitive higher education market.

Keywords

Higher educationskillsemployabilitymarketisationorganisational change
Type
Article
Information
Journal of Social Policy , Volume 50 , Issue 2 , April 2021 , pp. 386 - 405
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2020. Published by Cambridge University Press

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Ainley, P. and Weyers, M. (2008), ‘The variety of student experience’, in Canaan, Joyce E and Shumar, Wesley (eds.), Structure and Agency in the Neoliberal University, Abingdon: Routledge, pp. 151–72.Google Scholar
Barnett, R. (1994), The limits of competence, Bristol: ERIC.Google Scholar
Barr, N. (2012), The economics of the welfare state, Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Benassi, C., Durazzi, N. and Fortwengel, J. (2020), ‘Not all firms are create equal: SMEs and vocational training in Germany, Italy and UK’, MPIfG Discussion Paper.Google Scholar
Boden, R. and Nedeva, M. (2010), ‘Employing discourse’, Journal of Education Policy, 25, 1, 37–54.10.1080/02680930903349489CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Burniston, S., Rodger, J. and Brass, J. (1999), Enterprise in Higher Education - Changing the Mindset, London.Google Scholar
Busemeyer, M. (2015), Skills and Inequality, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
CBI and NUS (2011), Working towards your future Making the most of your time in higher education, London: CBI & NUS.Google Scholar
CBI and Universities UK (2009), Future fit, London: CBI.Google Scholar
Clark, B. (1983), The Higher Education System, Berkeley: University of California Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cranmer, S. (2006), ‘Enhancing graduate employability’, Studies in Higher Education, 31, 2, 169–84.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Crouch, C., Schröder, M. and Voelzkow, H. (2009), ‘Regional and sectoral varieties of capitalism’, Economy and Society, 38, 4, 654–78.Google Scholar
Culpepper, P. (2001), ‘Employers, Public Policy, and the Politics of Decentralized Cooperation in Germany and France’, in Hall, P. and Soskice, D. (eds.), Varieties of Capitalism, Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 275–306.Google Scholar
Davey, T., Baaken, T., Galan-Muros, V. and Meerman, A. (2011), The State of University-Business Cooperation in United Kingdom, Brussels: European Commission.Google Scholar
Dearing, R. (1997), Higher Education in the Learning Society. London: NCIHE.Google Scholar
Dimaggio, P. and Powell, W. (1983), ‘The iron cage revisited’, American Sociological Review, 48, 2, 147–60.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Durazzi, N. (2018). ‘The Political Economy of High Skills’, London School of Economics and Political Science.Google Scholar
Durazzi, N. (2019), ‘The political economy of high skills’, Journal of European Public Policy, 26, 12, 1799–817.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Estevez-Abe, M., Iversen, T. and Soskice, D. (2001), ‘Social Protection and the Formation of Skills’, in Hall, P. and Soskice, D. (eds.), Varieties of Capitalism, Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 145–83.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Farnsworth, K. and Holden, C. (2006), ‘The business-social policy nexus’, Journal of Social Policy, 35, 3, 473–94.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Finegold, D. and Soskice, D. (1988), ‘The failure of training in Britain’, Oxford review of economic policy, 4, 3, 21–53.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Freeman, B., Marginson, S. and Tytler, R. (eds.) (2014), The age of STEM. London: Routledge.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gerring, J. (2004), ‘What is a case study and what is it good for?’, American political science review, 98, 2, 341–54.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Goglio, V. and Regini, M. (2017), ‘Processes and stages of differentiation in European higher education’, Higher Education Quarterly, 71, 4, 320–37.10.1111/hequ.12133CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hall, P. and Soskice, D. (2001), ‘An Introduction to Varieties of Capitalism’, in Hall, P. and Soskice, D. (eds.), Varieties of capitalism, Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, pp. 1–68.Google Scholar
Harvey, L. (2009), Review of research literature focussed on Foundation degrees, London: FDF.Google Scholar
Huddleston, P. and Laczik, A. (2012), ‘Successes and challenges of employer engagement’, Journal of Education and Work, 25, 4, 403–21.Google Scholar
Ingold, J. (2018), ‘Employer engagement in active labour market programmes’, Public Administration, 96, 4, 707–20.Google Scholar
Ingold, J. and Stuart, M. (2015), ‘The demand-side of active labour market policies’, Journal of Social Policy, 44, 3, 443–62.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mares, I. (2003), The politics of social risk, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Martin, C.J. (2005), ‘Corporatism from the firm perspective’, British Journal of Political Science, 35, 1, 127–48.10.1017/S0007123405000062CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mason, G., Williams, G. and Cranmer, S. (2009), ‘Employability skills initiatives in higher education’, Education Economics, 17, 1, 1–30.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mazzucato, M. and Dibb, G. (2019), Missions: A beginner’s guide, London: UCL.Google Scholar
McNair, S. (1995), ‘Editorial’, Education+ Training, 37, 9, 3.Google Scholar
Morley, L. (2001), ‘Producing new workers’, Quality in Higher Education, 7, 2, 131–38.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
NAO (2017), The higher education market, London.Google Scholar
OECD (2008), Tertiary Education for the Knowledge Society, Paris: Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development.Google Scholar
OECD (2012), Is increasing private expenditure, especially in tertiary education, associated with less public funding and less equitable access? Paris: Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development.Google Scholar
OECD (2015), Youth, Skills and Employability, Paris: Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development.Google Scholar
Pratt, J. (1992), ‘Unification of higher education in the United Kingdom’, European Journal of Education, 27, 1/2, 29–44.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pratt, J. (2008), ‘UK: End of the British binary system‘, University World News.Google Scholar
Shattock, M. (2012), Making policy in British higher education 1945-2011, New York: McGraw-Hill Education.Google Scholar
Shaw, C. (2014), ‘Removing the cap on student numbers - six questions answered’, The Guardian.Google Scholar
Soskice, D. (1993), ‘Social skills from mass higher education’, Oxford Review of Economic Policy, 9, 3, 101–13.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Universities UK (2016), University Funding Explained, London: UUK.Google Scholar
University Alliance (2015), Mind the Gap: Engaging employers to secure the future of STEM in higher education, London: UA.Google Scholar
Whiteley, T. (1995), ‘Enterprise in higher education-an overview from the Department for Education and Employment’, Education+ Training, 37, 9, 4–8.Google Scholar
Yin, R. (1981), ‘The case study crisis: Some answers’, Administrative science quarterly, 26, 1, 58–65.CrossRefGoogle Scholar