Resisting the English neoliberalising university: what critical pedagogy can offer

This paper seeks to contribute to current efforts of left academics to shift the English public university away from its present state of what I below call 'deep neoliberalisation'. I utilise the concept of neoliberalisation rather than the more common concept of neoliberalism to frame what was an initially gradual and, under the current Conservative-Liberal Democrat government, a deepening reorganisation of the university as a marketised, commodified and financialised entity. I then explore the key tenets of critical pedagogy that a small and growing number of academics are adapting to develop a left counter to this process. I conclude by suggesting that there are limits to realising critical pedagogy in the university that is leading some academics to seek its realisation outside.