Neoliberalism, Human Capital and the Skills Agenda in Higher Education--The Irish Case.

Abstract

The making of human capital is increasingly seen as a principal function of higher education. A keyword in neoliberal ideology, human capital represents a subtle masking of social conflict and expresses metaphorically the commodification of human abilities and an alienating notion of human potential, both of which sit ill with the goals of education. The recent National Strategy for Higher Education to 2030 (the Hunt Report) which appeared in Ireland in January 2010, is a representative example of official articulation, on the part of government and corporations, of the human capital/skills agenda in post-crash Ireland. Human capital, now commonplace across official discourse in Ireland, is a complex ideological construct which, in the educational arena, gives voice to two specific interests of capital: the provision of a workforce ever more narrowly suited to the current needs of employers and the intensification of competition between individuals in the labour market. The construct subtly reinvents socio-economic processes as acts driven solely by individuals and reconstitutes higher education as an adjunct of the economy. However, this paper argues, a skills-driven higher education can neither deliver large numbers of high value jobs nor overcome the deeper causes of the present crisis. This raising of false expectations, alongside a crudely reductionist view of education, sets limits on the unchallenged hegemony of this particular strand of neoliberal ideology. In the current recession, during which the state is attempting to shift the burden of educational funding from public to corporate and individual contributions, those involved in higher education need to provide a robust political economy critique of human capital ideology in order to strengthen practical resistance to it. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke, after getting agreement for injecting capital into the banks, October 2008 ‘They will lend the money out, won't they?’ 1 Irish Minister for Finance Brian Lenihan, October 2008, ‘The guarantee for Irish banks will be the cheapest bailout in the world so far’ 2 . Colin Hunt Chairman, National Strategy for Higher Education, Ireland, January 2011, ‘Higher education is central to future economic development in Ireland, and the need for lifelong learning and upskilling among the workforce will also contribute to growth’ 3 . 1 As reported in the HBO US television documentary-drama ‘Too big to Fail’ (2011). 2 Irish Times Friday October 24 th , 2008. 3 Introduction to The Hunt Report (DES 2011:3) Neoliberalism, human capital and the skills agenda in higher education 94 | P a g e The deeper the crisis the stronger the tendency, among apologists of the system, towards selfdelusion. Belief in the market overrides everything else even, as the above statements show, when the logic of events points in the opposite direction. This state of denial – a characteristic feature of dominant ideologies – may be indispensable in the effort to restore hegemony, but it also runs the risk of leaving the ideology exposed, particularly when its own dictates seem to compound the crisis rather than resolve it. The same strident self-delusion can be seen in education: neoliberal assumptions about the role of education in the economy not only offer no plausible solutions, either social or educational, to the present crisis but also involve a deeply demeaning view of the role of education in society. Unveiling ideology in matters of education has a special importance. Education systems play a unique economic and ideological role for capitalism: they prepare people for work; they prioritise what should be taught; and, at any given historical moment, they decide how education can best meet the needs of capital (Belamy Foster 2011; Bowles and Gintis 1976). They also have a socialising function and aim to make dominant ideas the accepted currency amongst the young. However, in times of capitalist crisis, education can often become a political and ideological battleground, as Athens, London, Madison and Santiago, in varying degrees, have recently shown (Swain 2011; Lipman 2011). With the protraction of the crisis, and austerity programmes and cutbacks becoming harsher, education can be expected to occupy the frontline of opposition to neoliberalism. This paper argues that, in the case of Ireland, the government has targeted higher education to fulfil what it perceives as the new requirements of capital and to drive through, in the uncertainties of recession, the consolidation of neoliberal policies. Official government policy on Higher Education in Ireland, as presented in the Hunt Report, clearly lays out these objectives, and makes the assumption, widely repeated elsewhere in Irish society, that the provision of highly skilled graduates will be the route to economic recovery. Underpinning this thesis is the notion that the function of higher education is to produce ‘human capital’ for the ‘smart’ economy. Human capital, this paper argues, is a fundamentally false representation of both labour and capital in that it effaces of both social class and the actual mechanisms of the labour market in capitalism; it constitutes an ideological device which reifies the role of the individual in order to obscure class conflict. The paper will also argue that while the economic recession continues and while the skills-to-growth model fails to materialise, the contradictions of neoliberal ideology in education will become more exposed, with the potential to give rise to greater political disillusion.