Event Details

The Covid-19 pandemic was the context for rapid market growth of digital technology in higher education (HE) and an acceleration of longstanding trends of privatisation in HE policy. The paper illuminates how crises are used as opportunities for privatising public education.

Building on fields of policy sociology, digital sociology and economic sociology, this paper presents an analysis of the mobile multisector policy networks, digital learning platforms, and market devices through which privatisation in HE was advanced during the pandemic. The paper illuminates how crises are used as opportunities for privatising public education.

Bio

Ben Williamson is a Chancellor’s Fellow in the Centre for Research in Digital Education at the University of Edinburgh, editor of Learning, Media and Technology, and author of Big Data in Education: The Digital Future of Learning, Policy and Practice.

Speaker profile - Ben Williamson

https://www.ed.ac.uk/profile/ben-williamson

There will be a chance to ask questions at the end of the seminar presentation via Zoom

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