Bloomsbury Higher Education in Austerity Europe

The financial crisis of 2007/2008 prompted governments across Europe to adopt austerity measures aimed at the reduction of their escalating budget deficits. Higher Education in Austerity Europe explores how the resulting cuts in public expenditure - together with the increasing reliance on the privatisation of services - have impacted on higher education directly through the reduction of public sector provision and indirectly as a result of the social and political consequences of that reduction. Moreover, it explores how the effects of these economic policies have differed markedly across the national regions of Europe, with the result that inequality has increased significantly both within and between national regions, and this, in turn, has led to social and political dislocation within and across communities. It is only by viewing higher education within this broader context that we can begin to understand the full implications of the austerity measures introduced over the last ten years. Jon Nixon draws together leading scholars to delve into the complexity of impact and response generated by these measures. Part 1 focuses on cross-European perspectives; Part 2 on the impact of austerity measures within national systems; and Part 3 on new perspectives and possibilities. The volume also includes considered responses from outsiders by academics located in Asia, Australia, and the USA, providing an additional dimension to the analysis. As well as analysing the full impact of austerity measures across some of the worst hit national regions of Europe, the contributors also identifying openings and possibilities for renewal. Review Austerity is being outsourced in order to blame those who did not generate the financial crisis. Higher education is one of those sites where cuts to knowledge production is negatively impacting on the purposes of research and teaching. Nixon and colleagues not only illuminate the complexities of what is unfolding, but also explicate how other events - Alt Right depoliticisation and populism, and Brexit - actually combine with enduring social justice issues to ratchet up radical changes to higher education. The threats are real but this collection of essays does more than scope our fears by demonstrating the intellectual activism needed to name, resist and provide alternatives. --Michael W. Apple, John Bascom Professor of Education, University of Wisconsin, Madison, USAThis book charts the impacts of austerity on the role, financing, governance and pedagogy of higher education. Mercifully, the authors discern some glimmers of hope that the moral and civic values of higher education institutions as a public good have not been totally eroded by economic utilitarianism --Helen M. Gunter, Professor of Professor of Educational Policy and Sarah Fielden Professor of Education, The Manchester Institute of Education, University of Manchester, UKThis is a history of leisure that takes working class girls seriously. Whilst female leisure choices were no infrequently castigated by social commentators, Milcoy shows that young women themselves grasped the opportunities available to them for pleasure. The sources are very well used and include the records of girls' organisations and a lovely collection of oral history interviews. This book is a real pleasure to read. --Robert Adamson, Chair Professor of Curriculum Reform and Director, Centre for Lifelong Learning Research & Development, The Education University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong About the Author Jon Nixon is Honorary Professor in the Center for Lifelong Learning Research and Development at The Education University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, and Visiting Professor at Middlesex University, UK.