The flexible University: Neoliberal education and the global production of migrant labor

• Main Author: ORTIGA, Yasmin Y.
• Format: text
• Language: English
• Published: Institutional Knowledge at Singapore Management University 2018
• Subjects: Neoliberalism; Higher education; Flexibility; Marketization; Philippines; Migration; Education; Sociology
• Online Access: https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/soss_research/2750; https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/context/soss_research/article/4007/viewcontent/Ortiga2015b__1_.pdf
• Institution: Singapore Management University

This article demonstrates how neoliberal higher education has come to play a distinct role in the global market for migrant labor, where a growing number of developing nations educate its citizens for overseas work in order to maximize future monetary remittances. Located in the Philippines, this study shows how local colleges and universities attempt to impose an ideal notion of flexibility, quickly shifting academic manpower and resources to programs that would produce the ‘right’ types of workers to address foreign labor demands. Based on qualitative interviews with Filipino college educators and students, the article then discusses how such ‘flexible’ strategies undermine the job security of college faculty and lead to the constant restructuring of physical space within university campuses. Such changes negatively affect both students and teachers.