Conflicting logics of online higher education |
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Authors: | Mariya P Ivancheva Rebecca Swartz Neil P Morris Sukaina Walji Bronwen J Swinnerton Taryn Coop |
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Institution: | 1. Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, Centre for Higher Education Studies, University of Liverpool, Liverpool, UKM.Ivancheva@liverpool.ac.ukhttps://orcid.org/0000-0003-4066-4074;3. International Studies Group, University of the Free State, Bloemfontein, South Africahttps://orcid.org/0000-0001-9659-4971;4. Faculty of Education Social Sciences and Law, School of Education, University of Leeds, Leeds, UKhttps://orcid.org/0000-0003-4448-9381;5. Centre for Innovation in Learning and Teaching, Centre for Higher Education Development, University of Cape Town, Cape Town, South Africahttps://orcid.org/0000-0001-6829-9035;6. Faculty of Education Social Sciences and Law, School of Education, University of Leeds, Leeds, UKhttps://orcid.org/0000-0002-4241-4952;7. Faculty of Education Social Sciences and Law, School of Education, University of Leeds, Leeds, UKhttps://orcid.org/0000-0002-9240-4728 |
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Abstract: | AbstractThe advent of massive open online courses and online degrees offered via digital platforms has occurred in a climate of austerity. Public universities worldwide face challenges to expand their educational reach, while competing in international rankings, raising fees and generating third-stream income. Online forms of unbundled provision offering smaller flexible low-cost curricular units have promised to disrupt this system. Yet do these forms challenge existing hierarchies in higher education and the market logic that puts pressure on universities and public institutions at large in the neoliberal era? Based on fieldwork in South Africa, this article explores the perceptions of senior managers of public universities and of online programme management companies. Analysing their considerations around unbundled provision, we discuss two conflicting logics of higher education that actors in structurally different positions and in historically divergent institutions use to justify their involvement in public–private partnerships: the logic of capital and the logic of social relevance. |
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Keywords: | Higher education marketisation unbundling digital technology inequality |
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