Challenging the market in education

'Challenging the market in education' was a major conference held in May 2008 for union activists, MPs, councillors, journalists and anyone interested in the impact of marketisation on education.

We hope this conference will be a significant step in developing the unions' and activists response to the encroachment of the market and of privatisation in education.

 Challenging the market in education - Marketisation and the growth of the private sector in tertiary education: a preliminary report (.pdf) [266kb]

Speakers:

• Professor Dexter Whitfield, European Services Strategy Unit
• Professor Ken Spours, Institute of Education
• Professor Roger Seifert, University of Keele
• Sally Hunt, general secretary, UCU
• Christine Blower, deputy general secretary, NUT

The conference also featured workshops led by activists on:

• resisting city academies
• the marketisation and privatisation of higher education
• the skills agenda, Train2Gain and private providers
• building grassroots responses and organising around marketisation
• using the political process to challenge the market
• defending quality and advancing an alternative vision of education.