Edinburgh Napier University

  In this short session we draw on work we have done over a number of years but primarily on a recent paper published in Teaching in Higher Education entitled ‘Study Skills: neoliberalism’s perfect Tinkerbell.’ We outline our own roles in the UK and Australia, and set these against how we have seen the sector evolving (and continuing to evolve) towards decontextualized, generic, and centralized support; support that is delivered in many cases, and increasingly so, through the library. We then outline some arguments to illustrate why we consider this evolutionary path to deliver Study Skills in this way to be both a. pedagogically misguided and without any credible foundation and also simultaneously b. perfectly aligned with neoliberal ideology and political economy. We then talk briefly about how we see such a situation to have been either allowed to happen, or facilitated to happen. Finally we end with suggestions on how we can use such arguments to underline the value of what we can do as Academic Advisors, and underline arguments to our institutions to move back to having us based in Academic posts in Schools and faculties. We also make a few tentative suggestions for future directions of policy arguments and research, which we intend will initiate ideas for further questions and suggestions in the group discussions later in the day.