Across the world, higher education systems are in crisis. The public university model that emerged after World War II, already eroded by three decades of neoliberal reforms, the Covid-19 pandemic and the unrelenting spread of ‘audit culture’, is today facing a unique set of challenges: technological, financial, and existential. In Britain, one in four universities are making a loss and risk bankruptcy. In response, many have introduced stringent cost-saving measures, draconian restructuring plans based on New Public Management principles, or novel income-generating initiatives to commercialise their assets. Others have turned to professional consultants for solutions, particularly the Big Four accountancy firms. These companies provide wide-ranging financial, managerial and employment services, advising on loans, mergers, overseas campuses, IT and security, property portfolios and HR policies. As a result, they have gained increasing influence over university governance. These developments are changing the public university, transforming the ecology of higher education, and redefining academic identities. I ask, why are these firms targeting higher education? What techniques do they use to cement their expertise, profitability and power? And what are the implications of these developments for university futures? To address these questions I analyse how these firms portray the crisis in higher education and the solutions they propose. Using ethnographic examples from universities at the forefront of experiments to develop new management models, I show how these ideas are translated into practice, and reflect on their implications for academia.
Image credit: The Independent (2017); Students during a protest calling for the abolition of tuition fees and an end to student debt in Westminster, London (PA)