Brothers in Arms? How Neoliberalism Connects North and South Higher Education: Finland and Portugal in Perspective

Sara Margarida Diogo and Teresa Carvalho
Additional contact information
Sara Margarida Diogo: Department of Social, Political and Territorial Sciences, University of Aveiro, Campus Universitário de Santiago, 3810-193 Aveiro, Portugal
Teresa Carvalho: Department of Social, Political and Territorial Sciences, University of Aveiro, Campus Universitário de Santiago, 3810-193 Aveiro, Portugal

Social Sciences, 2022, vol. 11, issue 5, 1-21

Abstract: This paper puts in perspective the reforms of the Portuguese and Finnish higher education (HE) sectors in the light of the role intergovernmental organisations have—especially the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD)—in influencing neoliberal public policies in these countries. On the year that the OECD celebrates its 62nd anniversary, (the OECD was founded with this name on 14 December 1960 by 20 countries, following the establishment of the former European Economic Co-operation (OEEC) in April 1948) and by comparing two different countries, this article analyses the extent to which the OECD has been and is an “imperial agent” in Portuguese and Finnish HE policies. By cross-comparing the OECD reports of both HE systems, the empirical data shows how the OECD proposes neoliberal reforms based on three main components of neoliberalism: market, management and performativity in different countries. Taking these proposals into account, Portugal and Finland undertook similar HE legislative reforms despite their geographical, historical, cultural and economic differences. The data reveal a convergence in HE policies in these countries, anticipating the reinforcement of neoliberal policies at the national level.

Keywords: OECD; Portugal; Finland; HE; policy diffusion; policy implementation; New Public Management (NPM) (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: A B N P Y80 Z00 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2076-0760/11/5/213/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2076-0760/11/5/213/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jscscx:v:11:y:2022:i:5:p:213-:d:814801

Access Statistics for this article

Social Sciences is currently edited by Ms. Yvonne Chu

More articles in Social Sciences from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().