The Responsibilized Consumer: Neoliberalism and English Higher Education Policy

This article considers the function of higher education in England in the responsibilization of young people as consumers of a higher education product. The article elaborates a two-part theoretical framework that draws upon Gramsci and Foucault. This framework is then applied to analyze the 2011 White Paper, Students at the Heart of the System. This is examined as an example of technology of neoliberal governance that works at the creation and maintenance of a community of self-reliant consumer-citizens. Significant policy developments subsequent to the 2011 paper are also discussed. The article concludes with the discussion of three issues: I will reflect upon the value of the theoretical framework employed within the study; future policy directions in the higher education sector under the new Conservative administration of 2015 will be considered; I will consider the potential for productive spaces of resistance against the ever-tightening constrictions of educational commercialization and commoditization.