ABSTRACT
This chapter argues that there has been a noticeable trend towards a populist approach in higher education policymaking, with policymakers appealing directly to the public rather than working in collaboration with universities. Academics interested in understanding the ebb and flow of power and influence in policymaking are typically required either to analyse public documentation or be granted this privileged insider status in their own right – and usually only well after the fact, when the key actors have moved into new roles, or retired. In principle, social media ought to make policymaking more participative and democratic, with people empowered to have a greater say over issues that affect their lives and taking part in identifying issues, then proposing, and testing, solutions. Universities have been replaced by students as the objects and imagined beneficiaries of higher education policymaking. A process that employers expected to be merely irksome exposed significant rifts inside universities between university leaders and staff.
