Governing by Numbers and Human Capital in Education Policy Beyond Neoliberalism

This book addresses governing by numbers and human capital policy in higher education by asking how higher education is quantified, how the quantitative information is used in educational governance, and how the information is perceived by students, teachers, managers, and policymakers, and affects decision-making. It also thematically discusses how human capital theory affects the quantification practices and, thereby, their effects. Based on these analyses, the book asks whether governing by numbers and human capital in education policy are necessarily neoliberal practices, and thus questions the theory of global convergence in educational governance.

The book provides a thorough analysis of the quantification of graduate outcomes based on the philosophical framework of Agential Realism, thus offering a novel analytical approach to the study of data and indicators in educational governance. The book draws on a comprehensive ethnographic case study from Danish higher education, and relates the findings from this case study to empirical cases in other countries and international research in the field. The book brings together literature from various fields, including political science, accounting, education, and sociology of quantification, in order to provide a comprehensive account of how quantification practices affect education.