ABSTRACT
This chapter reflects on the lack of resistance to the introduction of market regimes to English higher education. Roger Brown, as well as being an eminent and respected scholar, has also been actively committed at all stages of his career as administrator and academic to progressive social democratic politics, especially of education. The optimal internal management arrangement for privatised local government services increases unravelling and ends what semblance there ever was to a coherent system of further education and higher education in the UK. The Second Machine Age by Erik Brynjolfsson and Andrew McAfee describes how digitising technology is automating mental labour just as the first industrial revolution de-skilled manual labour. Young women are applying to and graduating from higher education in larger numbers than ever before, but, often after numerous internships, do not often secure full-time employment outside of the service, retail and office jobs that are stereotypically female occupations.
