The contradictory managerialism of university quality assurance

This paper investigates how Australian universities are being disciplined to behave as commercial enterprises by the Australian Universities Quality Agency (AUQA). The manual produced by AUQA, for the purpose of conducting audits of Australian universities, is analysed. I use an analytical framework...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of education policy 2009-09, Vol.24 (5), p.575-593
Main Author: Reid, Ian C.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Audits (Verification)
Australia
Australian Universities Quality Agency (AUQA)
Business
Commercialization
Critical Discourse Analysis
Discourse Analysis
Educational Administration
Educational Policy
Educational Quality
Foreign Countries
Global Approach
Globalization
Governance
Guides
Higher Education
Inferences
Language Usage
Managerialism
Politics
quality assurance
Quality Control
Quality management
Quality standards
School Choice
Social Environment
State intervention
Universities
University management
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Summary:This paper investigates how Australian universities are being disciplined to behave as commercial enterprises by the Australian Universities Quality Agency (AUQA). The manual produced by AUQA, for the purpose of conducting audits of Australian universities, is analysed. I use an analytical framework that provides a means by which a text from the 'manual' genre can be analysed with respect to social and political contexts, using Critical Discourse Analysis. I analyse changes in the language used in subsequent editions of the manual, drawing inferences about how the AUQA manual constructs universities to behave as particular kinds of business entities. Depictions of the globalised and virtualised university are silenced in the texts. Contrary to the rhetoric of the university being a flexible, globalised enterprise, I find that universities are constructed as localised businesses appearing to be independent of direct government control but nevertheless constrained in the scope of their operation.
ISSN:0268-0939
1464-5106
DOI:10.1080/02680930903131242