The neoliberal metamorphosis of curriculum in Ethiopian higher education: A critical policy analysis

Abstract

Abstract This study interrogates the radical restructuring of higher education curriculum in Ethiopia, unmasking the ideological forces that have repositioned the university from a site of critical intellectual socialization to an instrument of technocratic market utility. Guided by the critical theories of Henry Giroux, Michael Apple and Michel Foucault, the research employs a Critical Policy Analysis (CPA) of a longitudinal policy ensemble, including national proclamations, strategic roadmaps and competency frameworks. The study reveals a systematic metamorphosis of the curriculum into a corporate regime. The findings delineate tripartite trajectories: (1) a regulatory shift that employs legal mandates to centralize curricular control; (2) an epistemological shift that displaces theoretical depth with market‐ready competencies, resulting in a systematic de‐theoretization of knowledge; and (3) a structural shift that institutionalizes a 70:30 STEM‐to‐humanities ratio, creating an ‘epistemological apartheid’. The analysis demonstrates that while the state deploys a technocratic rhetoric of employability, the underlying effect is the hollowing out of the university as a democratic public sphere. The article concludes with an urgent call for the reintegration of theoretically grounded and socially powerful knowledge, emphasizing intellectual agency and democratic citizenship over the narrow dictates of market compliance.