Abstract:

Higher education systems are evolving in conjunction with wider structural transformations in advanced capitalism. The policy convergence toward a dominant neoliberal political agenda is a global phenomenon. Student consumers and governments seek ‘value’ from higher education. Value, which must be visible and measurable, is synonymous with economic return and accountability.

Employability has been described as an organising narrative within this global, neoliberal, economic discourse. As university fees have increased and graduate employment has become more uncertain, employability has become synonymous with the ‘value’ of university education. Neoliberalism has shifted the purpose and practices of education from ‘learning to be’ to ‘learning to earn’; and the learning emphasis from the student experience to graduate ‘work readiness’.
Employability is closely linked with performativity. Much has been written about the performativity of universities and of academic staff. Less has been written about student performativity, particularly in relation to employability. Student performativity refers to the ways in which students are evaluated based on their university performance in ‘bodily, dispositional and emotional’ terms. The student as ‘performing self’ is very evident in employability discourse, transforming learning at university from a private space into a public performance.

We seek to look more closely at the relationship between employability discourse and student performativity. We begin by analysing all Australian University websites and their statements of employability and show that graduating employable citizens is now the main focus of universities. The ranking of Australian universities on student responses to national survey tools that include capturing information on the graduate’s labour market outcomes reinforces this focus. The analysis of university statements of employability shows that universities encourage students to think of university education as a way to secure employment and a highly paid job. Universities, through the embedding of graduate capabilities in the curriculum and through the activities offered in their career centres, aim to develop the ‘right’ worker identity and mould students into employable selves with a ‘winning edge’ to secure a good job and pay.

Based on this analysis of employability discourse, we argue that there is an uncritical and unquestioned acceptance of employability and student performativity that is potentially damaging to the student and, ironically, to their working life. We call for a more critical understanding of the ideology of employability that encourages student agency and awareness.

Keywords:

Higher education, employability, performativity, neoliberalism, learning.