Neoliberalism In Higher Education

I have spent most of my life in school trying to achieve my goal of becoming a teaching. Jumping through the necessary hoops, quickly learning shortcuts for completing minimal work for optimal results. The thirst that I once had for learning, exploring and questioning turned into memorization, approval seeking and compliance. I became a product of society and the factory model of education. Starting from elementary school through to higher education the focus of education no longer seems to be the learning process. The great power that can be acquired through knowledge and the ability to educate one’s self seems to have been dismantled through the subtle yet strong influence of neoliberalism. This growing rationality has entered multiple domains …show more content…
Its policies emphasize privatization, deregulation, free trade and commodification. It promotes the economization and financialization of “non economic domains, activities and subjects” (Brown 31) such as college admissions and baby adoptions. Taking away from a greater social cause, neoliberalism encourages self-advancement and responsibility turning individuals and states into businesses. Wealth redistribution is exclusive to the powerful and wealthy which supports the large gap between rich and …show more content…
Harvey supports this claim, adding that the neoliberal policies have allowed for ‘accumulation by dispossession’ through taking away wealth from the public or poor, creating a concentration of wealth among the rich. This occurs through privatization, financialization, the management and manipulation of crises and state redistributions (tax changes of the wealthy). Such policies ensure the concentration of wealth remains with the rich and limits the poor from advancing. Neoliberalism has surpassed the economy realm, creating a “specific formulation of economic values, practices and metrics to every dimension of human life” (Brown) that transform the way in which our society functions. There are a number of consequences that stem from neoliberal policies that not only create and maintain class division but dissolve principals of freedom, rights and culture. When everything is seen through an economic perspective values that cannot be applied to gain capital or investment are simply dismissed. For our education system this is exactly what is happening altering the institution, faculty and students into factory, developers and