Net/working: higher education in the age of neoliberalism, crisis and social media

Abstract

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examines the history and goals of online instruction in higher education by linking them to the neoliberal agenda emerging at the end of the 1980s and early 1990s. Here, the author argues that the move toward more online, socially mediated instruction in higher education is symptomatic of larger socio-political and economic constraints that have been placed upon the academy. Design/methodology/approach – The author demonstrates the practical impact of neoliberal shifts in higher education with the emergence of the online for-profit institution – The University of Phoenix. Here, the author shows the ways in which the advent of the internet, together with the expansion of social – both individual and institutional – networks, come together with neoliberal shifts in government to simultaneously render the university both more and less relevant as an institution. The author limits analysis to the language of connectivity and networking evident in online educational settings to highlight more directly the broader shifts in taking place in the contemporary academy surrounding the tension between professional integrity and institutional marketability produced by the proliferation of online, for-profit colleges and universities. Findings – In part four, the author argues that the institutional response to this state of affairs has been to both expand and limit the mission of the university from a space of formal education to a site of biopolitical production, where students come not merely to earn a degree in anticipation of landing a job, but also, to learn to configure and manage themselves. Practical implications – In the concluding section, the author explores the professional implications of these changes through an analysis of the popular professor rating site – Rate My Professors. Originality/value – The approach the author takes in this paper enables us to more closely exam the ways in which neoliberal mandates for quantifiable measures of institutional “effectiveness” center on a fundamental restructuring of the instructor-student relationship toward a service model wherein the instructor becomes the manager of emotions whose goal is connect with students and so model the kind of affective flexibility and resourcefulness they in turn will requires when joining the workforce.