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Neoliberalism and the Crisis in Higher Education: The Cost of Ideology

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  • Beth Mintz

Abstract

A number of factors have contributed to the crisis in higher education, including the long‐term transformation in funding. In this article, I argue that neoliberalism can explain many of the processes leading to our changing commitment to colleges and universities and the cost increases that this change has produced. A number of neoliberal assumptions firmly rooted in conventional wisdom have contributed to a “student‐as‐customer” phenomenon, which is, itself, a cost driver. I look at the development of the student as customer as a vehicle for exploring tuition increases. I also examine the tension between education as a public and a private good and the marketization of higher education as crucial drivers of these transformations. In doing so, I emphasize that the student as customer has been created by the changes in the way we think about, organize, and fund education, rather than any fundamental change in young people.

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  • Beth Mintz, 2021. "Neoliberalism and the Crisis in Higher Education: The Cost of Ideology," American Journal of Economics and Sociology, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 80(1), pages 79-112, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:ajecsc:v:80:y:2021:i:1:p:79-112
    DOI: 10.1111/ajes.12370
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Brian Jacob & Brian McCall & Kevin Stange, 2018. "College as Country Club: Do Colleges Cater to Students’ Preferences for Consumption?," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 36(2), pages 309-348.
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    6. Griffith, Amanda L., 2011. "Keeping up with the Joneses: Institutional changes following the adoption of a merit aid policy," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 30(5), pages 1022-1033, October.
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    2. Bourabain, Dounia, 2024. "Racial and Gender Inequality as a (Non)Crisis: The Discursive Strategies of Academic-Managers in Belgian and Danish universities," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 178(C).

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