Transformations of higher education

The neoliberal transformation of higher education has intensified the precarization of academic labor, restructuring employment conditions through short-term contracts, heightened competition, and market-driven policies. This chapter examines four key processes shaping contemporary academia: precarization, entrepreneurization, subjectivation, and exploitation of anxiety. Precarization has led to the generation of ‘disposable’ researchers, disproportionately affecting women, working-class academics, and other marginalized groups. Entrepreneurization, driven by managerial practices, has transformed academia into a “greedy institution”, where researchers are compelled to embody an ethos of personal responsibility and self-discipline, aligning with the neoliberal ideology that prioritizes hyper-productivity, competition, and personal sacrifice. Academic success is increasingly tied to quantifiable outputs, external visibility, and institutional branding, pressuring scholars to produce beyond teaching and research while facing intensified surveillance and performance monitoring. Moreover, as scholars engage in public discourse, they become increasingly exposed to online harassment and vulnerable to cyberhate and other forms of digital violence, often without institutional protection. These pressures, in a work context where emotional investment is closely intertwined with long hours and overwork, are further reinforced by complex processes of subjectification, which shape academic identities around internalized competition and work pressure. Finally, the exploitation of anxiety manifests through the relentless demand for productivity and institutional indifference to mental health struggles. In this frame, while resistance remains fragmented, collective strategies – such as redefining academic values, fostering peer support, and challenging competitive norms – offer potential pathways for change. This chapter ultimately calls for reimagining academia through sustainable and equitable models that prioritize cooperation, well-being, and research for the public good over neoliberal imperatives.