The ‘enshittification’ of higher education

Why the profanity you may ask? The term enshittification was coined by Cory Doctorow and certainly struck a nerve, declared word of the year for 2023 by the American Dialect Society.

What is it, and how does it help describe the current state of Higher Education in the UK? The term suggests a gradual process of degrading experiences. Something starts off good, gradually changes, and eventually morphs into, well, you know what.

Certainly, there is a whiff of something awful about UK Higher Education. Students are reportedly suffering from record levels of mental distress. Staff are constantly on strike, or on sick leave. Management is instigating repeat rounds of redundancies and closures. The UK government frets about wokeism on campus and loads of foreigners (students) about.

How did something that started off as a societal aspiration, shining career path and public benefit turn into, well, shit?

One can blame the government, university management and students, in that order. Yes, students are on that list, so if you are already offended, please swipe away and save yourselves the anguish of reading till the end.

Agent of foulness number 1: The Government. The Conservative party does not care about education, broadly, and higher education in particular. The government, does not believe that everyone could and should go to university. It believes in Oxbridge and the Russell Group for their (and their friends’) offspring. The masses that go to the ex-polys to be ‘scammed’ by ‘Mickey-mouse’ degrees should instead get a job. These beliefs were operationalised in the intentional and gradual financial strangling of the sector. Add to this, the government’s number one priority: hatred of foreigners, and you have a wonderful mix. A sector that is under-funded, pushed to expand overseas recruitment to fill in budget gaps, then denied the opportunity to do so by deranged rhetoric expressed in visa policies. Result? Enshittification of the higher education sector.

Agent of foulness number 2: University management. Do you know what happens when you try to operate a non-profit sector with business incentives? Take a wild guess. People who do not understand business, from higher to middle management are trying to make money by offering a ‘service’ without knowing what they are doing. The result is mayhem. Efforts at commercialisation of knowledge through knowledge exchange have spectacularly failed. Anyone who works in UK HEIs has sat in a few meetings where the head of school implores anyone to come up with some money generating ideas, ending up asking everyone to apply for unicorn research grants. The only response of university management to financial collapse has been to recruit more students and keep them in till the end. Result? Collapse in standards of admissions, ersatz assessment within, and degrees that demonstrate someone has passed through the doors. A degraded and degrading experience for staff and students alike. Some more excrement on the pile.

Agent of foulness number 3: Students. It seems improper to blame the students of anything in an environment where meta-data and perception is all that matters. When you are begging students to tell you what a great time they are having every 5 minutes, because your only marketing tool is your league table position, then you can’t really admit some students are just no good, can you? Yet, there are a few things that are required of university study. A desire to be there is necessary. A level of competence to get in would be nice. Some level of engagement in order to progress would be welcome. Yet, this isn’t what is happening in many classrooms. Go on, ask around (privately, because no one will admit to any of this in a departmental meeting), do university staff enjoy their teaching? Frequently many students don’t turn up, and when they do, they play with their phones or fall asleep. When they produce work, a significant number plagiarise or get ChatGPT to do it. As we can’t fail anyone, because of (see agent of foulness number 1) money, the whole experience is, well, shit.

Of course, students face difficulties, of course many are decent engaged people trying their best, of course the environment is terrible, of course of course of course. But, at the end of it all, we need to admit that many students simply do not want to be at university. People everywhere, and students in this case, need to take some responsibility for their actions and take advantage of the opportunities made available to them, even in the terrible environment we are in. This realisation isn’t referring to the majority of students, but it is true for a significant minority. What is the result of the way many students engage? More enshittification.

Why am I not including staff in our list of contributors to this mess? Because staff are usually the victims of this trifecta of foulness. Teaching staff are frequently blamed for this pile of, well, you know. Teachers are derided by government and the press, harassed by management, and demanded things by ‘customer students’. Lecturers are in the shit. The sector is thoroughly enshittified. Thank you Cory Doctorow for giving me an opportunity to swear.

How do we get out? We don’t. The dodo is dead.

Things have gone too far down this path to reverse (even if Labour gets in, in case you were wondering). Escape forward we shall then.

Let it rip. Let the Tories shut everything down, apart from Oxbridge where every student can sit at the lap of a tutor. Let those who want an ‘experience’ and spend it going through their Instagram feed in classrooms, at the expense of the taxpayer, stay at home.

We don’t need a university to teach, and people don’t need to study in a degree programme to acquire skills. Look around, the University of the Air is YouTube. Nobody watches YouTube videos if they don’t want to, and nobody will stay watching if they don’t get value. This is where I am heading, and if you want to check out what I mean, visit my channel. While you are at it, listen to my podcast for some less sweary reflections on our predicaments.

Dr Ioannis Glinavos