‘Basket case’, ‘showcase’ or ‘business case’? The differentiated strategies of English Universities engaging with academies and free schools.

Dr Nadia Edmond, University of Brighton

Recent education policy in a number of countries has been characterised by an emphasis on the role of markets and market mechanisms as a solution to driving up the performance of education systems.  In England this has taken the form of rising fees and increased competition for students between institutions, and consequent concern for revenue streams within HE institutions.  In the compulsory schooling sector it has led to increasing diversification with the creation of different types of self-governing state funded schools run by trusts and corporate sponsors.

This paper examines the engagement of universities as sponsors in the emerging compulsory schooling ‘market’ in England.  It provides an overview and analysis of university engagement over the last ten years and explores how such involvement is discursively constructed by the institutions concerned. The findings reveal differentiated types, and different discourses, of ‘sponsorship’ which reflect the differentiated HE sector and raise questions about the role that university sponsorship may be playing in the differentiation and stratification of compulsory schooling.

Dr Nadia Edmond teaches at the University of Brighton School of Education where she is Principal Lecturer and programme leader for the Professional Doctorate in Education.  Nadia’s research and teaching build on her interest in critical perspectives on education and learning. She has a particular interest in the impact of the neoliberal education context on the relationship between formal and informal learning in professional development and the role of higher education in professionalism.

For further information please contact Liz Briggs: e.f.briggs@brighton.ac.uk