Students+as+Consumers



Overview Section

The //business// of education is a concept that has become somewhat of an issue in today’s society. As state standards are pressuring schools to perform and to produce a product that is sufficient based on multiple aspects of a grading scale, teachers, parents, students, and administrators alike have to take a hard look at whether students should be viewed as consumers or as product that has to be matured. In the past, it was not written, but it was understood that students must work through the rigors of a classroom in order to earn a passing grade. Otherwise, the student would be faced with the options of repeating the course until a satisfactory grade is acquired or living with the disdain of having failed the course. The trend of thought that has developed in recent years is the teacher should treat students as if they are a customer purchasing a product. Inherently, this would propose the idea that student’s essentially purchase the rights to a degree or diploma. This road to better educational achievements and students success has forked when considering this idea.

Randall S Franz, Professor of Economics at Seattle Pacific University, warns, “Whatever you do, don’t treat your students like customers!” (Franz, 1998). Franz offers a very witty perspective as to why students should not take on the role as a //consumer// of education. He uses imagery to paint an effective picture of the university/school becoming a new age shopping mall where students flock to the most attractive or popular courses and majors. The attractant for teachers and professors will be lights, bells, and whistles rather than the rigor of the classroom or the success rate the class material has in securing students a job in the future. Franz goes even further to offer a varied view of education as a business. He suggests that rather than the students as our customer, society as a whole is for whom the educator is providing a good. “The task of education is to equip men and women to be effective participants in society—citizens” (Franz, 1998).

Tucker Balch has argued within blogs on a popular subsidiary of //Wordpress.com// that students should be considered customers. He argued that the universities and schools were competing for students’ payments through tuition and therefore should design and convey a product that students will want and will be willing to buy (Balch, 2013). Balch argued that the student was more concerned with whether the classroom activities, topics, and overall curriculum would be effective in helping the student receive a job based on their skill set, learned from the prior, more than if the student enjoyed the class or received an easy grade. He continued to argue that if students were faced with the option to pay more expensive rates for an education that would produce higher job readiness and lower completion rate compared to a cheaper education that would produce higher completion rates and less job readiness, the student would choose the higher rate and lower completion rate.

The question of is education a pay here consumer product or a right that has to be earned through rigorous study and attrition is one worth paying much attention to. media type="youtube" key="IsAeHgT5H5c?rel=0" width="231" height="170" align="center"

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Trend and Issue Section

Trend: Students as Customer… In most of the sources used for this research, the trends of students as customers in education can be pinpointed to a change in thinking that began to snowball nearly thirty years ago. Apparently, during the 1980’s, and throughout much of the 1990’s, questions were beginning to brew about student capabilities and roles within the classroom. “[In prior years] schools were clearly in control of the curriculum, providing a pre-defined experience for every student wi th little ability to design programs of study. Students were for the most part powerless, and tuition dollars were a relatively small source of revenue, especially considering the lower expenses of that era” (Crichton, 2010). Now, well into the millennium, this idea has been transformed into a new ‘customer friendly’ atmosphere. Students are now being viewed as partner collaborators within in their curriculum; schools and universities explore ever more inventive ways of alluring prospective students in order to pay for inflated administrative and other prospective costs; and, standards in the curriculum have been combed with fine teeth in order to swell completion rates.

Issue: Trends that have led to issues… Many of the trends that deal with students as consumers have also led to some underlying disputes that all stakeholders must face and resolve. First of all, one issue that will require a level of concern is the level of job readiness among the newly franchised student ‘consumer.’ As students become more and more of a partner in what they will learn in today’s classroom, there is more emphasis on job skills being taught for professional positions that students plan to acquire post-graduation. The problem is that the face of the job market is ever changing and at faster rate than it has been before. Essentially, many students may be training for jobs that may no longer be in existence upon their graduation.

Another broad concern or issue would be the subliminal inclination of the ‘customer is always’ right attitude that comes hand-in-hand with a customer service approach. This predisposition would make students tend to expect instant gratification in return for their dollars spent. A very widely discussed topic that falls under the umbrella of instant gratification would be the lowering of curriculum standards to better appease the ‘customer.’ Students will not purchase classes that they believe to be overbearing, too strenuous, or does not directly lead to greater success in their chosen job field. Educators will have to dig deep into their virtue and decide whether to pacify the ‘consumer’ and accept greater attendance within their classrooms, or to stand with a doggedness resolve and keep the status quo with rigor. Another issue that comes along with instant gratification would be the inflation of grades and success rates. As standards decrease, the total number of students that will complete courses will rise. As completion rate begins to skyrocket, so does the availability of prospective laborers within the already slim job market.

My Thoughts: As an overarching topic, I would tend to disagree with the idea of students as customers. Only on the basis that it attaches all of the subliminal messages that follow in line with consumerism. For example, consumers feel the need to be satisfied with their purchase. If some orders a hamburger from their favorite burger place and ask for no mayonnaise, then they would be furious to take that initial bite and realize that their mouth is full of mayonnaise. On the other hand, as educators, we continually provide our students with curriculum that they may not want; but, we as educators know that what we are providing may be something that they need. I believe that many a times, in our own benevolent pursuits, we as educators are confused on the topic of students being equal versus students being provided equal opportunity. Consumerism would also suggest that as long as students pay for a product then they should receive that product. In this case we are referring to a diploma/degree. Many students go through today's educational system sort of like cattle on the way to slaughter under the fixation that if their cooperation will be rewarded with graduation. If we as educators buy into this type of system we will be doing our students (society) a grave disservice. The amount of students graduating will greatly inflate but their collegiate/work readiness will be insufficient. I believe that we must take a hard look at what we expect from ourselves as a society and plan for the outcomes that lie ahead.

**Download a proposal focused on this trend/issue in education here:** [[file:SorrellP_CurProp.docx]]
Bibliography:

[Web log message]. (2012, March 12). Retrieved from http://www.hanoverresearch.com/2012/03/college-students-as-consumers/ This site is a blog that gives perception of the topic from views of both students and educators of different levels.

Balch, T. (2013, January 08). [Web log message]. Retrieved from [] This site is an online article that gives insight from mostly one student's point of view. The comments are most interesting.

Cheney, G., McMillian, J., & Schwartzman, R. (n.d.). //Should we buy the "students-as-consumers" metaphor?//. Retrieved from [] This site offers a review of an article that was written by R. Schwartzman.

Crichton, D. (2010, May 06). Are students consumers of education. //Stanford Daily//, Retrieved from [] This site gives an article from the Stanford Daily that gives a very good fictional depiction.

Franz, R. (1998). Whatever you do, don't treat your students like customers!. //Journal of Management Education//, //22//(1), 63-69. Retrieved from [] This article give a scholarly approach to the topic by discussing from a university instructors point of view.

Schwartzman, R. (n.d.). Are students customers?:the metaphoric mismatch between education and management. //Education//, //116//(2), 215-222. Retrieved from []