“The essay analyzes how neoliberal ideology conceives of the public sector in general and, in particular, how this translates to an economic higher education sector. First, New Public Management (NPM) is a combination of free-market rhetoric and intensive managerial control practices. Second, NPM policies parasitize the everyday meanings of efficiency, accountability, and quality perverts the original meanings. Third, the definition of higher education under NPM poses a threat to education itself. Fourth, ‘NPM discourse’ can be termed “bullshit” as it has been elaborated by Princeton’s Harry Frankfurt. It is hermetically sealed, self-referential, and resistant to critique and criticism.”

Professor Chris Lorenz is a professor of historiography at VU University Amsterdam

Universities, Neoliberalism & Management

From: Critical Inquiry, Vol. 38, No. 3 (Spring 2012), pp. 599-629