Academic principles versus employability pressures: a modern power struggle or a creative opportunity?

This paper considers both the difficulties and the opportunities created by the mounting political pressures on UK universities to increase the 'employability' of undergraduate students. Using the subject of criminology as an example, the paper considers tensions that can be created when practitioners are brought into the academy to contribute directly in the curriculum. The paper advocates that whilst such difficulties cannot be underestimated, academic engagement in this agenda can be beneficial. Using a brief example it will be argued that creative use of practitioner discourses not only empowers students in their career planning but can be used to facilitate student understanding of the links between critical theory and practice. Consideration is also given to the argument that staying out of the debate risks the marginalisation of academic influence.