Sick of Studying: Mental @Illness@ and UK Neoliberal Higher Education Policy

The increased incidence of student mental health issues is routinely dissociated from higher education policy as a symptom of a natural, individual and a-political 'ilness'. This study contends that student mental 'illness' is a fundamentally socio-political phenomenon that is (re)produced through neoliberal higher education policy discources and structures as an instrument of neoliberal power; that certain mental 'illnesses' are (re)defined, produced and (re) produce neoliberal power relations. Through critical literature review and service-user unterviews, the research aims to forge a new three-tier cross-disciplinary democratic and socio-centric research and policy framework that will (re)conceptualise student mental 'illness' within the context of the discourse-truth-knowledge-power-subject relations of neoliberal higher education policy. Tier 1 proposes that mental 'illness' is a discursive, contextual phenomenon and inherently (re)defined in opposition to neoliberal higher ethico-economic normality. Tier 2 proposes that mentally 'ill' student subject is (re)produced, both externally and internally, through neoliberal disciplinary power relations within higher education policy. Tier 3 proposes that this (re)production of mental 'ilness' is inherent to four cour tenets of neoliberal philosophy: 1) Neoliberal Govermentality; 2)Neoliberal Subjectivity; 3)Neoliberal Regulation & 4) Neoliberal Consumption. From this theoretical standppoint, this study advocates and analyses service-user interview transcripts to develop effective, responsive and preventative service-user led recommendations for both higher education policy and mental health service delivery.