Managing the Academics: Commodification and Control in the Development of University Education in the U.K.

Abstract

The paper analyzes a number of major developments in higher education in the U.K during the past decade or so. It explores the connection between changes in the organization and control of academic labor processes (e.g., teaching, administration, and research) and pressures exerted by the dynamics of capitalist development to commodify and control the work of academics. The first section considers the relevance of labor process analysis for understanding these changes. Attention is then paid to the historical development of academic work and, in particular, to the role played by the University Grants Council in providing academics with a significant measure of protection from commodifying pressures. In the remaining sections of the paper, the focus is upon major developments of the past decade or so: (i) the context, character and impact of the 1981 cuts in university expenditure, (ii) the research selectivity exercises of 1986, 1989, and 1992, and (iii) the work of the CVCP's Academic Audit Unit. A central theme of the paper is that the commodification of academic labor and the managerial control of academic work results from politico-economic pressures to demonstrate that funds are being directed in ways that are ostensibly congruent with the commodifying logic and priorities of capitalism.