Neoconservative Dismantling of Public Higher Education in the European Union
This is a stimulating and original collection of chapters produced by an impressive group of international scholars. It provides a vital critical perspective that will strengthen our understanding of what the very important Bologna project means for Universities in Europe and beyond – Roger Dale, University of Bristol, UK. This book is an imperative read. It presents a powerful set of challenging and straightforward analyses of the current neo-Rightist attack on Higher Education and the Public Sphere in the European Union by The Bologna Process. In an era of Public Education characterized by a flood of magical neoliberal solutions, this volume exposes the real political aims behind the illusions created by the Bologna Process. Sans euphemisms, Joao Paraskeva and his colleagues have insightfully unveiled how these current technocratic instruments, while assuming unique, neutral, and scientific solutions, have hijacked this debate. Jurjo Torres Santome – University of Corunha, Spain. All too often EU's higher education policies are left untouched by the critical eye as if the totalizing machine of the EU was handed over from above as a generous gift from the politico-administrative elite to the ordinary people walking in the markets of educational vanity. Fortunately, authors of this volume have the courage to see through the many illusions installed in the apparently all-European, "harmonizing", educative apparatus. - Juha Suoranta, Professor of Adult Education, University of Tampere, Finland. Creating access to Higher Education is not easy. It is even harder to create an accord where more than 20 EU Countries come together to change their paradigm, to change their approach, and to create a common fabric of higher education in the European Union. The contributors of this volume have reached out to critically analyze this accord and to help us better understand the lethal costs associated with it, in terms of the labor, identity, and academic freedom. Sheila Macrine – Montclair University, USA. Joao Menalau Paraskeva begins his new book with a clear assessment of the pedagogical proposals of what he terms the neo radical centrist globalization forces: these proposals are dismantling public Higher Education in the European Union. His collaborators provide complementary data and reflections along the same lines, public universities in the European Union are at the threshold of becoming organizations chained to the market undermining any other social and pedagogical function. For some this diagnostic of universities turned into subservient educational institutions, more oriented to for-profit ventures and the commodification of knowledge, may seem an exaggeration. It is early to assess to what extents all the claims made in this book are going to be fully developed with the dangerous implications noted in it, but there is no doubt that its warnings are serious, well-researched and presented in a thorough manner. Paraskeva is a sensible scholar and is offering a sensible book about the marketization of the European public university that educators around the world should take seriously - Gustavo E. Fischman Arizona State University
