Re-shaping the EHEA after the demise of neoliberalism: A UK-informed perspective

Since around the turn of the millennium, the European university has been re-furbished in the neoliberal style - the consequences of which to the lives of academics and students have been documented and analysed ad nauseam. But now, as the second decade of the twenty-first century draws to a close, subtle shifts are discernible and faint rumblings audible – which some commentators have taken as the faint overture of neoliberalism’s death knell. It is increasingly suggested that the neoliberal model is moribund. How imminent is its demise remains to be seen, but its days are certainly numbered; for, as surely as night follows day, every doctrine behind a political or economic model runs its course and is replaced. The winds of change are undoubtedly blowing, and when neoliberalism does become a thing of the past, quite a different university will emerge from its shadow. The post-neoliberal era and the academy that it fashions will make its way across much of Europe, redefining the shape and nature of the EHEA. Addressing the question: What might the post-neoliberal European university look like?, such redefinition is the focus of this predominantly conceptual and analytical chapter which argues for starting from a micro-level focus on reshaping European academic professionalism and considers the EHEA’s potential role in this.