Introduction

The changing value of higher education in England and Portugal: Massification, marketization and public good

“…It is clear that structural changes in each country’s sector are informed by a common rationality that includes its crucial role within the knowledge economies of the 21st century and the adoption of New Public Management approaches across the sector (Jessop, 2012; Naidoo and Williams, 2015; Teodoro and Guilherme, 2014). Additionally, within the context of massification and of a growing importance given to employability in (re)framing political orientations and institutions, as well as students’ and teachers’ roles (Arora, 2015; Tomlinson, 2017), the changing value of HE relates to the ways in which its missions are understood in both countries.…”

“…Economic growth has been understood to be linked to knowledge and human capital, conveying the ‘emergence of the knowledge-based economy as the hegemonic economic imaginary of the current state of capitalism – locating this in relation to the crisis of the main forms of economic growth in the post-war period’ (Jessop, 2012: 21). This is true for advanced capitalist economies, but also in other parts of the world such as Latin America, East Asia or the Soviet bloc; consequently, a transnational narrative about the value of higher education (HE) as an economical asset has become evident whereby the success of national economies is seen to be based on the productive connection between education system and industry (Teodoro and Guilherme, 2014). Accordingly, universities are expected to contribute to each country’s competitive standing in the global marketplace by producing and disseminating economically productive knowledge.…”

“…Progressively, educational credentials, knowledge and human capital become valorised as major drivers for the economic development of societies at the macro level and are presented as vehicles for better prospects in the life of individuals at the micro level. In fact, it is now widely accepted that economic and social progress requires a more highly educated population and that socio-economic growth (and as a result the labour market) needs alternative training models that develop flexibility, agility and facilitate fast integration in a system of production in permanent change (Teodoro and Guilherme, 2014: 1).…”

“…it is now widely accepted that economic and social progress requires a more highly educated population and that socio-economic growth (and as a result the labour market) needs alternative training models that develop flexibility, agility and facilitate fast integration in a system of production in permanent change (Teodoro and Guilherme, 2014: 1).…”

“…The democratization of the country after the political change that took place in 1974 is an important factor to push the widening of participation in HE and prompted a remarkable evolution, even if current participation rates are still significantly below the values registered in average in the OECD and in the EU (OECD, 2018). 1 Nonetheless the number of students applying to HE in Portugal decreased between 2013 and 2015 in the context of severe financial and economic constraints linked to the debt crisis in southern European countries, that also involved ‘radical cuts in university budgets (that) have placed their basic functioning in jeopardy, and has led to unprecedented regression in research and development’ (Teodoro and Guilherme, 2014: 2). Since 2016, the number of students enrolling in HE has started to increase once again.…”