Neoliberalism Against the Managerial University

ABSTRACT

Critical work on higher education policy and governance often conflates neoliberalism and managerialism, reflecting their close association in contemporary universities. The neoliberal drive to produce market‐like outcomes has created the conditions for managerialism to flourish, with centralised accountability and control mechanisms justified on ostensibly neoliberal grounds. However, we draw on foundational neoliberal thinkers to argue that managerial practices reintroduce the knowledge and incentive problems that markets are intended to solve. The same line of argument provides positive reason to prefer collegial governance on neoliberal grounds: decision‐making power can be aligned with relevant knowledge, while shared decision rights and peer scrutiny can constrain opportunism and create accountability for academics and managers. Without offering a fully specified governance model, we conclude that collegial governance is a more promising response to university information and incentive problems than centralised managerial control, even when neoliberal premises are accepted.