article on privatisation of universities

I recommend the article Sold Out by Stefan Collini, in the London review of Books. It reviews two books about the process of privatisation/marketisation of higher education, that has taken place in the UK during the past roughly 30 years. Collini’s article provides a highly informative overview of the development and current state-of-play of private sector provision of HE, in the USA and UK. It then explains very lucidly the problems inherent in the current system of student funding, and is very convincing on why it cannot be expected to last. My only criticism: the article is passionate, but doesn’t propose remedial action. That may be because there’s a bigger picture (missing from the article) that includes, for example, the recent Royal Mail privatisation. According to this bigger picture theory, remedial action would not be specific to universities, but would involve a restoration of trust in public institutions and the public service ethic.

(added later:) ...And, this article (Economics students need to be taught more than neoclassical theory) in the Guardian looks relevant to the general topic. See also this earlier article (Economics students aim to tear up free-market syllabus). Their criticism of neoclassical economics is mainly that it failed to predict the financial crisis. It could also be blamed for an approach to student funding which takes the form of firstly, assuming all students are selfish agents, and secondly, repeatedly raising the price of higher education, in search of some kind of market equilibrium.