EAP in the Third Space of Neoliberal Universities

Abstract

In order to contextualize the social processes studied in later chapters, some of the larger dynamics are presented, as these are driving the changes being witnessed in EAP at many universities around the world. Beginning first with a broad historical and theoretical discussion that posits Vocationalism within the deconstruction of the Cold War University of Culture, the Globalization of Higher Education, Massification, and McDonaldization, are considered, as these also serve to scaffold the process of neoliberalization in universities. Varied manifestations of the manner and intensity of neoliberalism at the different HEIs accessed resulted in the development of a typology of universities. This is presented so that readers can see which types of ‘neoliberal universities’ contributed most to this study. From here, the notion of Third Spaces in neoliberal universities is reviewed, and near the end of this chapter, the convergence of all of the topics, together with examples of qualitative data gathered from the field, will suggest that EAP units, once relocated to the Third Spaces of corporatized universities, are being inexorably transformed into Student Processing Units (SPUs).