Marketing Micro-Credentials: An Analysis of Actors, Voices and Messages in Educational Innovation Discourse

Overview & Synopsis

Much has been written about the potential of micro-credentials to revitalise and modernise Australian higher education offerings, and to create forms of educational credit linked more meaningfully with industry. Proponents of micro-credentials speak from a range of standpoints: public education institutions, private companies, industry associations, governments, educational technology businesses and more. This review examines the neoliberal reasoning inherent in micro-credential-promoting discourse, both in Australia and globally. It shows that micro-credentials are conceived as a form of product innovation which increase the provider pool to include private companies and technology intermediaries, while students are cast as independent consumers, perpetually responsible for self-managing their own employability education, but this analysis finds student voices and perspectives are absent from the discourse.