Investment in the self: The government of student financing in Australia

Changes in student financing in higher education are normally analysed in the terms of political economy, for example as a shift in the public-private balance of costs. This does not do full justice to neo-liberal reform in higher education, in which methods of government are being transformed, with implications for the identities (subjectivities) of students themselves. Focauldian theory provides one framework for exploring these effects. It suggests that an analysis grounded in political economy needs to be supplemented with the study of government policy discourses, the technologies of financing, and shifts in student identities. In the neo-liberal regime the student is formed and self-formed as an investor in the self-as-human-capital. These postulates are explored by examining recent changes in student financing in Australia, including the Higher Education Contribution Scheme, and the partial substitution of loans and self support in place of quasi-universal grants.