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Neoliberalism and Depoliticisation in the Academy: Understanding the ‘New Student Rebellions’ Leon Sealey-Huggins and André Pusey

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Neoliberalism and Depoliticisation in the Academy: Understanding the ‘New Student Rebellions’ Leon Sealey-Huggins and André Pusey Graduate Journal of Social GJSS Science Neoliberalism and Depoliticisation in the Academy: Understanding the ‘New Student Rebellions’ Leon Sealey-Huggins and André Pusey Since 2009 there has been an upsurge in political activity in and around the UK, as well as in some European and American universities. These ‘new student rebellions’ have displayed levels of radicalism and po- litical activism seemingly unprecedented among recent generations of students. Broadly speaking, the intensification of this activity can be understood as being directly related to ongoing neoliberal reforms of education, a process intensified by the global financial crisis. In this article we seek to consider some of the detail of the emergence of these rebellions, and argue that they can be interpreted as part of resistance to the neoliberal tendencies in contemporary social life. As such, we argue that a depoliticised tendency accompanies the introduc- tion of, and resistance to, neoliberal mechanisms in Higher Education (HE). As activists in groups who have adopted more creative and ex- plicitly politically antagonistic forms of activism, we suggest that such forms might be more productive arenas for our energies if we want to challenge the neoliberal and depoliticised root causes of these con- flicts. Keywords: Post-politics, Neoliberalism, Higher Education, NUS, Student Protest, Creative Resistance. The image of the future is chang- duced precarity (Compagna 2013; ing for the current generation of Southwood 2011; Standing 2011). young people, haunted by the spec- Young people are not the only ones tre of the ‘graduate with no future’ facing increasingly precarious fu- (Mason 2011, 2012; Gillespie and tures; current government austerity Habermehl 2012). Gone are the as- measures appear to have everyone pirational promises of post-univer- but the very wealthy in their sights. sity job security and social mobility. Recent outbreaks of rioting up and Instead, all that can be secured is down England appear to indicate a position of permanently repro- a growing disquiet (Bauman 2011; Graduate Journal of Social Science September 2013, Vol. 10, Issue 3 © 2013 by Graduate Journal of Social Science. All Rights Reserved. ISSN: 1572-3763 Sealey-Huggins and Pusey: The ‘New Student Rebellions’ 81 Harvey 2012; Milburn 2012). In this of political economic practices that article, however, we focus mainly on proposes that human well-being the situation in and around Higher can best be advanced by liberating Education, as this is the sector in individual entrepreneurial freedoms which we work and where we have and skills within an institutional had the most experience of recent framework characterized by strong struggles. private property rights, free mar- There has been much cover- kets, and free trade’ (Harvey 2005, age of the ‘new student rebel- 3). Thus, it usually entails ‘[d]eregu- lions’ (Solomon and Palmeri 2011; lation, privatization, and a withdraw- Hancox 2011), with commentators al of the state from many areas of focussing on, variously, ‘the vio- social provision’ (Harvey 2005, 3). lence’ of some of the demonstra- We begin, therefore, by outlining tions, or the new communication some of the mechanisms through technologies being deployed by which the neoliberalisation of UK the activists coalescing around this Higher Education (HE) is occurring, struggle. In this article, we seek to a phenomenon we see as mirror- consider some of the detail of the ing a wider neoliberalisation and emergence of these rebellions, and depoliticisation of contemporary argue that they can be interpreted social life. We then discuss some as part of resistance to the neolib- of the prominent moments in the eral tendencies in contemporary aforementioned wave of struggle social life. As such, we argue that and look at the role of England’s a depoliticised tendency accompa- National Union of Students (NUS) nies the introduction of, and resist- and ‘student leaders’ in furthering ance to, neoliberal mechanisms in depoliticisation. We conclude by higher education. exploring some alternative forms of The processes of neoliberalisa- resistance than those which tend tion have been widely discussed to dominate mainstream coverage: elsewhere in relation to different those which are based on experi- spheres of social life (for instance: ments in trying to bring other forms climate change in Lohmann 2012; of education, and society, into being. development in Motta and Nilsen As participants in groups who have 2011; and in terms of ‘actually exist- adopted more creative and explic- ing neoliberalism’ rather than sim- itly politically antagonistic forms of ply neoliberal ideology in Brenner activism, we argue that these might and Theodore 2002a, 2002b). For be more productive arenas for our the purposes of this article we align energies if we want to challenge ourselves with David Harvey’s defi- the neoliberal and depoliticised root nition of neoliberalism as ‘a theory causes of these conflicts. 82 GJSS Vol 10, Issue 3 Depoliticisation and ence’ in order to enable students, as Neoliberalism within the consumers, to choose the best uni- Academy versity (and to discipline academ- The past three years have seen ics’ teaching work). The neoliberal an upsurge in political activity in and justification for these mechanisms around UK universities, and edu- of measurement is that they will cational institutions more generally. ‘drive up standards’ and ‘improve This activity has displayed levels excellence’ (Gillespie et al. 2011). of radicalism and political activism Moreover, there are claims that seemingly unprecedented among market competition needs to be bet- recent generations of students. ter unleashed on the HE sector in Broadly speaking, the intensification order to coerce floundering institu- of this activity can be understood tions, their ‘dead weight’ faculty, and as being directly related to ongoing unpopular, or rather unprofitable, neoliberal reforms of education, a subjects. Criticisms are also being process intensified by the global fi- voiced over the commodification of nancial crisis. knowledge, especially though the Universities are currently facing various metrics systems such as the economic instability, debt and an REF, and the enclosure of research uncertain future. The once popular within exclusive and expensive in- ‘universal’ education model is in- stitutional libraries and publications, creasingly being undermined by ne- or behind electronic gateways such oliberal reforms aimed at ensuring as Ingenta or Cambridge Scientific that market values are better wed- Abstracts. ded to the working conditions and The trend towards the implemen- learning practices of the university tation of neoliberal principles in HE (Molesworth et al. 2010), what some is exacerbated by proposals out- have termed ‘academic capitalism’ lined in the UK government’s 2011 (Slaughter and Leslie 1999). Here White Paper on Higher Education in the UK, one of the ways this is oc- (Department for Business Innovation curring is through the intensification and Skills 2011). It aims to force com- of metric systems aimed at measur- petition in universities, with students ing ‘value’, including research-audit- remodelled as consumers, and un- ing exercises such as the Research popular or ‘uncompetitive’ courses Excellence Framework (REF) (De and universities potentially forced Angelis and Harvie 2009; Harvie into bankruptcy. Despite being filled 2000, 2004 and 2005; Gillespie et with contradictions and inconsist- al. 2011). The REF is accompanied encies, the White Paper intends to by teaching-auditing mechanisms better entrench the neoliberal model such as the National Student Survey of the academy, and in so doing ‘is (NSS), which attempts to use met- bound to reinforce existing social in- rics to measure ‘the student experi- equalities’ (Colleni 2011). Sealey-Huggins and Pusey: The ‘New Student Rebellions’ 83 The neoliberalisation of HE in the these ideas in relation to activism UK, and the rise of managerialism around UK Higher Education. in the public sector in general, can Evidence of the post-political or be directly linked to the wider emer- depoliticised condition is appar- gence of what has been termed the ent in the claims made by all the ‘post-political’, or ‘depoliticised’, major UK electoral parties that the condition of contemporary social life budget deficit must be reduced, for (Swyngedouw 2010; Zizek 2008). instance, with the only disagree- According to this thesis, the fall of ment centring on the technicalities the Berlin Wall, and the disintegra- of how and where the cuts fall. This tion of the Soviet Eastern Bloc, then filters through to the HE sec- have resulted in a consensus that tor where cuts play out in the cull- takes capitalist liberal democracy ing of unprofitable, and often criti- for granted as the legitimate form cal, subjects, a process presented of social and political organisation. as being driven by economic and All this is perhaps best summed administrative necessity rather than up by Francis Fukuyama’s (1993) politics. This logic is not restricted infamous ‘end of history’ claims. to the challenges to the public uni- Political and ethical questions versity discussed above, but is even about how people should live are evident in those organisations and displaced in this depoliticised con- institutions apparently charged with text by technocratic and manage- resisting the neoliberal attack, such rial decisions shorn of their political as the National Union of Students
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