Social Justice and Neoliberalising Cameroonian Universities in Pursuit of the Bologna Process: An Analysis of the Employability Agenda

Abstract

This chapter presents a case of the adoption of the Bologna Process (BP) outside the boundaries of the European Higher Education Area (EHEA) – in Cameroon. The adoption of the BP lines of action has triggered higher education (HE) reforms in Cameroon including reforms to enhance graduate employability. In Cameroon, graduate employability is promoted through ‘professionalisation’ of degree programmes – which seeks to prepare students with employment-ready skills and competences capable of adapting to the fast and highly competitive global economy either as job seekers or job creators. With the use of policy documents, existing literature and interviews with policymakers and university officials, this chapter examines the framing of employability from the perspective of social justice and neoliberal discourses. The analysis highlights the idea that while the overall goal is to promote social justice by enhancing the employability skills of all graduates to gain employment through a diverse set of employability pathways, some of the pathways are dominated by neoliberal ideologists discussed in this chapter via mode of governance, commodifying training and commodifying access. The different focuses and operationalisation of social justice and neoliberalism reveal tension as social justice emphasises training for all while neoliberalism emphasises training only for those students with the purchasing power.

Citation

Eta, E.A. (2023), "Social Justice and Neoliberalising Cameroonian Universities in Pursuit of the Bologna Process: An Analysis of the Employability Agenda", Kushnir, I. and Eta, E.A. (Ed.) Towards Social Justice in the Neoliberal Bologna Process, Emerald Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 149-168. https://doi.org/10.1108/978-1-80117-880-820231008