Shaping for Mediocrity

In 2021, as part of a programme called Shaping for Excellence, bosses at the University of Leicester made redundant numerous scholars in what was simultaneously an attack on academic freedom and trade union organisation.

The authors of Shaping for Mediocrity not only had front-row seats in the campaign against these mass redundancies, they were in the ring - both as targeted employees and as trade union officers and negotiators. Shaping for Mediocrity tells the inside story of these attacks and the campaign against them. It situates this story within a longer history of struggle to make the university a place where critical thinking is possible, showing how events in Leicester are both reflective of higher education in the UK following four decades of neoliberal 'reform' and a particularly egregious instance of the increasingly authoritarian management of public institutions such as universities.

Shaping for Mediocrity is an exposé of what neoliberal university management does when academic workers passionately promote a rigorous and useful critical education. Without fear or favour, the authors journey through a notorious seven-month battle at one university, which ended in bitter defeat with tragic personal and professional costs. While it is a saddening and emotional read, their experiences are invaluable hard lessons for all education workers engaged in struggles everywhere. I’ve read nothing like this book in five decades. I salute those involved. -- Alpesh Maisuria, co-author of Life for the Academic in the Neoliberal University