Образование, образование, образование: Три идеи за качеството на висшето образование в Англия и Уелс
Education, Education, Education: Three Notions of Quality in Higher Education in England and Wales

Summary/Abstract: The goal of this paper is to review the recent history of higher education in England and Wales, focusing especially on the post-Tony Blair (and post-Bologna) years and on the related but distinct questions of the value and quality of academic research. We argue that Blair’s 1996 slogan, “Education, education, education,” unintentionally refl ects the signifi cant feature of this history. While intended to emphasize the importance of education in society, the phrase also symbolizes what we see as three distinct movements or threads in the late 20th century and early 21st century development of higher education in England and Wales: democratization (or popularization), marketization and, in a specifi c and revised notion of word, professionalization. Quality is the endgoal in all of these models, and meritocracy is universally conceived of as the means of achieving it. They differ, however, in their view not so much of what these things are but of how they might be implemented. We summarize these differences and argue that, despite them, democratization and marketization are mutually reinforcing in practice. We argue that this leaves a truly critical analysis of the purpose and ethos of higher education wanting – and suggest a third model, professionalization, as a real alternative to both. This discussion is related to the task of evaluating academia, both in terms of its value to society and the quality of its products.

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