Neoliberalization of higher education in China: A critical discourse analytical approach

Abstract

Drawing on a transdisciplinary approach to critical discourse analysis, this paper looks at the case of Chinese higher education to explore how neoliberal ideology is constituted, recontextualized, and legitimated in the public discourse of Chinese universities in a socio-political context marked by the intricate integration of administration and politics. The analyses show how these universities have endeavored to respond to the economic imperatives of a globalizing knowledge-driven economy while strategically absorbing the socio-political governance agenda inherited from the state's institutional legacies. The findings suggest that the discourse of higher education in China is a highly contested space for competing ideologies, reproducing a narrative that facilitates the commodification of higher education and dismisses the contradictions between ideological values at the glonacal nexus.