Work or Alienation? A Conceptual Understanding of Academic Labour Process in Neo-liberal University System

Abstract

In recent years, universities in Nigeria, and indeed elsewhere, have continued to face challenges on how to deliver more quality services to the stakeholders; both within and outside the University’s communities. These challenges have had to do with the ways in which Universities are funded and managed which consequently have implications on how the Universities organise and control academic work i.e. teaching, administration and research. These main responsibilities for academic staff in the Universities are conceptualised as academic labour process. Within a more generic understanding of Higher Education’s (HE) Management, Universities are therefore expected to device more efficient means of managing, and organising academic work process. In this context, “quality” has come to convey improved processes which define the performance of Universities. However, these are not without implications on leadership roles, work experiences, quality of work-life balance, and employability of the academics. The Paper provides a conceptual review and theoretical understanding of academic labour process in the universities. It evaluates the normative assumptions, and the implications of academic labour process on the lived-work experience of academics.