What Higher Education Ministers Talk about When They Talk about Innovation

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  • Author(s): Flavin, Michael (ORCID Flavin, Michael (ORCID 0000-0001-9183-2977)
  • Language:
    English
  • Source:
    British Journal of Sociology of Education. 2023 44(3):539-557.
  • Publication Date:
    2023
  • Document Type:
    Journal Articles
    Information Analyses
    Reports - Research
  • Additional Information
    • Availability:
      Routledge. Available from: Taylor & Francis, Ltd. 530 Walnut Street Suite 850, Philadelphia, PA 19106. Tel: 800-354-1420; Tel: 215-625-8900; Fax: 215-207-0050; Web site: http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals
    • Peer Reviewed:
      Y
    • Source:
      19
    • Education Level:
      Higher Education
      Postsecondary Education
    • Subject Terms:
      Foreign Countries; Higher Education; Educational Innovation; Efficiency; Economic Development; Pandemics; Sustainability; Politics of Education; Administrator Attitudes
    • Subject Terms:
      United Kingdom
    • Accession Number:
      10.1080/01425692.2022.2153646
    • ISSN:
      0142-5692
      1465-3346
    • Abstract:
      This article analyses speeches made by UK higher education ministers, from the election of the Conservative government in May 2015 through to September 2020. The article uses disruptive innovation as a theoretical framework through which to analyse ministers' perspectives on innovation. The methodology is content analysis with a directed approach. Fourteen speeches are analysed. Innovation is shown to serve an economic agenda, enabling students to transact their higher education quickly and subsequently function without state support. Innovation is also a flexible term offering numerous solutions, from providing economic growth; to militating against the isolationism of Brexit; to providing a route out of the pandemic. Innovation is intended to enhance economic performance and to deliver efficiency, but not to fundamentally disrupt the existing organisation of the UK's higher education sector. Innovation, as articulated by Ministers for Higher Education, comprises sustaining innovation and efficiency innovation, but not disruptive innovation.
    • Abstract:
      As Provided
    • Publication Date:
      2023
    • Accession Number:
      EJ1385306