ABSTRACT
This chapter reviews ongoing debates on neoliberalism and their implications for public sector management, contextualized in terms of higher education (HE) policies and practices in tourism and hospitality from across the globe. It posits neoliberalism as a hierarchical discourse that can be examined at three interrelated levels, macro, meso and micro levels, but where the boundaries are fluid rather than discrete. The perception and presentation of universities and other higher education institutions (HEIs) as ‘the guardians and creators of knowledge produced for the greater good of humanity’, and for which these institutions are perceived and project themselves as ‘the watchdogs for the free interchange of ideas . . . including freedom to dissent from prevailing orthodoxies’ (Lynch, 2006: 3) is put to scrutiny. The chapter aims to demonstrate how neoliberalism has concomitantly ushered in a shift in the power balance in HE, making it possible to identify the key beneficiaries. In so doing, the chapter unveils what are thought to be logical ambiguities in the new, if not constantly evolving, discourses in HE, centred on such notions as ‘student experience’ and ‘research excellence’ in order to pinpoint the ensuing ironies and implications of neoliberalism and the new managerialism in tourism and hospitality education. The chapter mulls over questions such as ‘Is excellence in student experience and research possible in the presence of limited or non-excellent experiences for those who serve the students (academics, student support services as exemplars)?’ Or a borrowed but more discerning thought by the Roman poet Juvenal VI who posed the question ‘quis custodiet ipsos custodes?’ The chapter seeks to demonstrate that there are possible emotional and logical limits to the extent to which neoliberalism and the new managerialism can contribute to the attainment of the contemporary goals of tourism and hospitality in HE.
