Soft Neoliberal Governmentality: the Case of Public Higher Education in Mexico

Abstract

The objective of this article is to present, based on a review of literature published mainly between 1994 and 2018, how the neoliberalization of public higher education in Mexico has been implemented in a soft way. This process of neoliberalization, initiated in 1982, implied leaving aside coverage and placing emphasis on the quality of education, which has led to the proliferation of technological and private universities; it also implied that the funding granted to institutions is not constant, which has led to processes of stratification/precarization of the teaching staff; in addition, constant evaluations, linked to funding, have become a mechanism of state control on education.