Managerialism and professionalism in the ‘cinderella service’

Abstract

As a result of the process of incorporation following the Further and Higher Education Act of 1992, Cityshire College, a large further education college left the jurisdiction of the local authority and gained greater responsibility for managing its own affairs. Arising from a case study based on interviews and questionnaires the paper considers the impact of changes within the College which took place between 1991 and 1994. Of particular interest is the development of a “new managerialism”, a management style which spread throughout public sector organizations during the 1980s. The evidence from the lecturer questionnaire suggests that staff reject the values represented by this development and are opposed to the threat they perceive to the professional culture of further education. In considering new modes of learning, notions of quality in education and the intrusion of the market into the college, the deprofessionalisation and, indeed, “proletarianisation” of the FE lecturer is suggested as a possible outcome.