Academic resistance to quality assurance processes in higher education in the UK

Abstract

The focus of this article is on academic resistance to quality assurance processes that have developed within UK higher education in relation to both research and teaching. These quality processes are often seen as forms of disciplining technologies (Blackmore, 2009) and are arguably an important part of the means by which new public management has been introduced to the sector. They have been perceived to monitor and control academic work in relation to teaching and research within UK universities over the last 20 years or so. However, this article attempts to look at the complexity of academic reactions to these processes and the ways in which academics situated within particular contexts might challenge and resist the discourses and subject positions that are being offered to them Thomas and Davies (2005). Following the work of Graham (2011) and Hyatt (2013) a Foucauldian informed critical discourse analysis is used to examine two critical case studies of resistance to both the quality assurance processes for teaching and the assessment and evaluation of university research work.