2017 Fiscal Year Research-status Report
Politics of Higher Education Marketisation
| Project/Area Number |
17K03563
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| Research Institution | Waseda University |
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Principal Investigator |
C・J Pokarier 早稲田大学, 国際学術院, 教授 (70386697)
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| Project Period (FY) |
2017-04-01 – 2021-03-31
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| Keywords | campus / downscaling / marketisation / public policy / universities |
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| Outline of Annual Research Achievements |
The project narrowed by end-H29, from a general comparative political economy of higher education (HE) funding and marketisation, to three sub-issues: Campus as catalyst: how does the HEI campus remain central to policy and HEI strategy in an ICT-enabled virtual age? How do state - national and sub-national - actors co-opt the HEI campus as catalysts of economic (and social) change, under competitive market conditions? Downscaling: cases where demographic and/or economic forces exert downward pressure on the scale of a higher education system, and policy and HEI managerial responses. This addresses a common growth bias in the literature on HE, and offers more insight into the general ‘political economy of decline’. New market-making as policy escape from the current limits on HEI growth.
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| Current Status of Research Progress |
Current Status of Research Progress
1: Research has progressed more than it was originally planned.
Reason
Literature review, presentation of full papers at the Consortium of Higher Education Researchers (CHER 2017 @ Jyavskyla;, Finland) conference, on universities as policy actors, and at the European Consortium of Political Science (ECPR 2017 @ Oslo) conference, on a case study of the campus as policy tool, extensive dialogue with prominent scholars in the field, and, importantly, field visits to campus projects, clarified the areas of most promising research. It also revealed that the general field of the politics of higher education funding has been well examined already; hence the narrower foci on the campus space as catalyst in higher education policy and institutional strategy, on the politics of HE downscaling in some contexts, and international HE market-making as growth stratagem.
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| Strategy for Future Research Activity |
Field visits in Helsinki (Aalto U.), Copenhagen (CBS, KADK) , and Jerusalem (Bezalel Academy, not Kaken funded) affirmed campus design and siting, as object and tool of public policy and HEI strategy, to be the most promising line of research inquiry. This will require rather more site visits, within existing funding constraints to facilitate comparative analysis of campus projects under market conditions. Policy re downscaling of troubled HE systems is a key secondary line of research, including general explorations of the ‘political economy of decline’, and both desk research and selective field inquiry. Public policy underpinning international higher education market-making, via several cases studies (primarily Australia) remains the third leg of the research agenda.
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| Causes of Carryover |
In the first year priority was given to scoping the literature and practical scale and focus of the project. Fortunately, several promising lines of narrower - and feasible and potentially influential - research were identified early on. As a result, monies have not yet been spent on research assistance or on books and data. When this is done later it will be much more focused and productive. Initial feed visit costs were a little higher than anticipated (being in Copenhagen and Helsinki) but they proved to be profoundly productive in focusing the research.
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