George's posterous

Student as consumer? Hold on, where is the evidence, and for what

Debbie McVitty, Senior Research & Policy Officer (Higher Education)
for the National Union of Students argues (here
http://www.wonkhe.com/2011/12/06/why-students-as-customers-is-bad-for-policym...,
" ... the idea of the student-consumer, .... substitutes economic
power ... for self-determination, or the power to negotiate the act of
learning." And goes on, "It is therefore highly concerning to see the
debate about whether students are consumers flattened into a casual
comment like ‘students consider themselves more and more as consumers’
used as an a priori assumption on which a policy argument subsequently
rests."

Her point is that there is no research to support the assertion about
student consumerism, or what it means, or for whom. Like "Digital
Natives", student-as-consumer is an idea in the zeitgeist which needs
to be put to the same scrutiny as the idea of the digital native was.
Maybe it will stand up, but more likely it won't.

9 December 2011
Views
Permalink
Tweet

George's posterous

Student as consumer? Hold on, where is the evidence, and for what

George Roberts's Space

Archive

About George Roberts

Follow Me