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The development of higher education in Japan and the United Kingdom: The impact of neoliberalism
Author(s) -
Brazzill Marc
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
higher education quarterly
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.976
H-Index - 42
eISSN - 1468-2273
pISSN - 0951-5224
DOI - 10.1111/hequ.12280
Subject(s) - neoliberalism (international relations) , politics , higher education , state (computer science) , political science , convergence (economics) , government (linguistics) , period (music) , washington consensus , kingdom , world war ii , political economy , economic growth , public administration , sociology , economics , law , paleontology , biology , linguistics , philosophy , physics , algorithm , computer science , acoustics
There is a growing consensus in political science research that higher education systems are classifiable into stable distinct types that reflect dominant trends in government partisanship. There is also a large body of higher education research that argues that higher education systems are changing and converging upon a neoliberal type, which is not yet reflected in the political science literature. This paper seeks to reconcile these two positions by looking at both the development of higher education systems in the post‐war period and subsequent systemic reforms that have been identified as neoliberal. There have been two main targets of reform: (a) the role the state plays in funding and targeting research, and (b) student finance regimes consisting of tuition fees and the system of financial aid. This paper provides an in‐depth look at the cases of Japan and the United Kingdom, which developed into very different systems in the post‐war period but have since shown slight convergence on the back of neoliberal reforms.