Alternative higher education (HE) : discourses in lifelong learning (LLL)

Abstract

In an article published in a UK sociology of education journal, I analysed the EU discourse on Higher Education (henceforth HE) (Mayo 2009) mainly through its policy documents on universities and other tertiary-level institutions. I argued that in this discourse:

A number of key words emerge from these and other related documents, as well as other documents by agencies that dwell on the implications of these policy directions, such as the Council for Industry and Higher Education (Brown 2007) and the League of European Research Universities (LERU 2006). The key words include ‘knowledge economy’, ‘competitiveness’, ‘entrepreneurship’, ‘lifelong learning’, ‘access’, ‘mobility’, ‘outcomes and performance’, ‘quality assurance’, ‘innovation and creativity’, ‘diversification’, ‘privatisation’, ‘internationalisation’, ‘autonomy’ and ‘business-HE relationships’. Once again, the list is not exhaustive but contains the key terminology on which the EU’s HE discourse rests (Mayo 2009, p. 89). I also argued that the overall tenor of this discourse is that of HE for employability and also spoke about the agenda of industry gaining the upper hand with the emergence of documents geared towards a more structured relationship between universities (important institutions within HE) and business. The paper highlighted the underlying neoliberal tenets of this discourse even though I tried to “tease out the tension that exists in the discourse between neo-liberal tenets and the idea of a Social Europe” (Mayo 2009, p. 87). The latter is a term used by those who point to an alternative way of doing European politics, one which extends beyond Neoliberal market-oriented approaches to include social solidarity measures and safety nets; they often point in this regard to Europe’s tradition of social welfare programs and more recently the Social Charter.