In the Nordic model, higher education has been regarded as a public good, central to policy goals of the social-democratic welfare state. In line with the neo-liberal policy regime, many public sector welfare and infrastructure services have undergone processes of privatization. Higher education has become increasingly defined as a private good to be purchased by the state on behalf of students as customers. Public institutions are increasingly involved with branding and marketization activities and in attracting private investors to share the costs of higher education. We will conduct research on marketization and the interplay between public and private sector involvement in higher education service provision at local, national and global levels.
ONGOING RESEARCH
- Privatization and Access to Higher Education in Finland: relations of power, guidance devices, and private capital in the transition to higher education
- Institutional ‘branding’ and generation of prestige
- Internationalization, marketization, the case of English Master’s programmes
- Educational export