The Marketisation of Higher Education and the Student as Consumer

ISBN-13: 9780415584470 / Angielski / Miękka / 2010 / 250 str.

Mike Molesworth

Opis

Until recently government policy in the UK has encouraged an expansion of Higher Education to increase participation and with an express aim of creating a more educated workforce. This expansion has led to competition between Higher Education institutions, with students increasingly positioned as consumers and institutions working to improve the extent to which they meet 'consumer demands'. Especially given the latest government funding cuts, the most prevalent outlook in Higher Education today is one of business, forcing institutions to reassess the way they are managed and promoted to ensure maximum efficiency, sales and 'profits'. Students view the opportunity to gain a degree as a right, and a service which they have paid for, demanding a greater choice and a return on their investment. Changes in higher education have been rapid, and there has been little critical research into the implications. This volume brings together internationally comparative academic perspectives, critical accounts and empirical research to explore fully the issues and experiences of education as a commodity, examining:

• the international and financial context of marketisation
• the new purposes of universities
• the implications of university branding and promotion
• league tables and student surveys vs. quality of education
• the higher education market and distance learning
• students as 'active consumers' in the co-creation of value
• changing student experiences, demands and focus.

With contributions from many of the leading names involved in Higher Education including Ron Barnett, Frank Furedi, Lewis Elton, Roger Brown and also Laurie Taylor in his journalistic guise as an academic at the University of Poppleton, this book will be essential reading for many.

Spis treści

@contents: 1. Introduction to the Marketisation of Higher Education and the Student as Consumer  Section I: Marketisation of Higher Education in Context  2. The March of the Market  3. Markets, Government, Funding and the Marketisation of UK Higher Education  4. The Marketised University: Defending the Indefensible  5. Adopting Consumer Time and the Marketing of Higher Education  6. Complexity Theory  Section II: The Marketised Higher Education Institution  7. Vision, Values and International Excellence  8. From Accrington Stanley to Academia?  9. Branding a University  10. Access Agreements, Widening Participation and Market Positionality  11. ‘This place is not at all what I had expected’: Student Demand for Authentic Irish Experiences in Irish Studies Programmes  12. The Student as Consumer  Section III: Students, Consumers and Citizens  13. The Consumer Metaphor Versus the Citizen Metaphor  14. Constructing Consumption  15. 'A degree will make all your dreams come true': Higher Education as the Management of Consumer Desires  16. How Choice in Higher Education can Create Conservative Learners  17. Pedagogy of Excess  18. Arguments, Responsibility and What is to be Done About Marketisation  19. A Concluding Message from the Vice-Chancellor of Poppleton University