The objective of this research is to critically study the accountability system and the approach to the university as a quasi-market in the neoliberal system. This research is qualitative and falls within the category of cultural studies. Critical method (discovery of contradictions, latent factors, criticism of ideology and liberation) has been employed for the purpose of this study. Marketization, “New Public Management” and domination of accountability in the universities are parts of conservative neoliberal policies, whose final objective is development of an identity congruent with the neoliberal system and legitimization of unequal power relations. This scheme suffers from many inherent contradictions, and, although, it apparently raises the slogan of the policy of noninterference and free election, its outcome is the increasing interference of the state in the universities and decline of the university’s independence through a new type of management based on indirect interference. Increase in competition, privatization, standardization, objective evaluation of the results and ranking of the universities based on tangible products are among the tools of this kind of interference. Considering the students as consumers undermines the citizenship education based on equal participation and criticism, and, instead, this system raises passive individuals with the concern of capitalization and commoditization of time and existence. In order to redeem the higher education from the process of marketization, the universities must be revived as democratic and academic institutions and their responsibility towards social justice and human problems, such as poverty and inequality, should be strengthened.
Mohammadi, H., & Zibakalam, F. (2019). Neoliberalism and the Rise of “Accountability”
in University: A Reflection on the Approach to University as a Quasi-market Institution. Strategy for Culture, 12(47), 127-149. doi: 10.22034/jsfc.2019.103797
MLA
Hamdollah Mohammadi; Fatemeh Zibakalam. "Neoliberalism and the Rise of “Accountability”
in University: A Reflection on the Approach to University as a Quasi-market Institution". Strategy for Culture, 12, 47, 2019, 127-149. doi: 10.22034/jsfc.2019.103797
HARVARD
Mohammadi, H., Zibakalam, F. (2019). 'Neoliberalism and the Rise of “Accountability”
in University: A Reflection on the Approach to University as a Quasi-market Institution', Strategy for Culture, 12(47), pp. 127-149. doi: 10.22034/jsfc.2019.103797
VANCOUVER
Mohammadi, H., Zibakalam, F. Neoliberalism and the Rise of “Accountability”
in University: A Reflection on the Approach to University as a Quasi-market Institution. Strategy for Culture, 2019; 12(47): 127-149. doi: 10.22034/jsfc.2019.103797
)