Are Students Customers? Perceptions of Academic Staff

ABSTRACT This paper examines the notion of the student as a customer in a university, focusing on the perceptions of academic staff. Changes in the higher education sector in recent years have significantly reduced the differences between universities and other types of organisation and it has been argued that students have become ‘consumers’ of higher education services. On the other hand, some senior academics believe that higher education is not just another service industry. The views on the notion of the student as a customer were elicited by means of in‐depth interviews amongst staff in three ‘new’ (post‐1992) and three older universities. Whereas the government and its agencies stress the need to consider students as customers, there is very limited support for this notion amongst academic staff. Academic discipline, rather than the type of university, appears to be influential in determining attitudes towards the notion of the student as a customer.