We started this project because we are both aware of the current crisis the higher education sector is in. Our experience with the higher education system is in Australia, Aotearoa New Zealand and the UK, but we are know that many of the problems we’re aware of are occurring in other countries too.
It is our belief that the University sector is in crisis. Widespread casualisation, debates around academic freedom, difficulties managing ever larger workloads, increasing corporatisation and cost-cutting measures, to name but a few changes, all impact University staff in numerous ways. We decided we wanted to know more about how this affects people who work in the modern university.
In this research project we are interested in all aspects of work in, and resistance to, the neoliberal university. We are starting with a short survey that asks some demographic information and then asks relevant individuals – those have worked in a university in some capacity within the last 5 years and are 18 years of age or older – to share stories of their work in this system. These stories may be positive or negative.
You can find the survey HERE. (opens up Qualtrics).
We recently (June 2023) published a piece in The Conversation based on this study: ‘Battered and broken. I must get out’: what staff told us about teaching and working in universities today. You can read it HERE.
Under pressure: stories of work in, and resistance to, the neoliberal University 