Keeping the 'Customer' Satisfied: Parents in the Higher Education Marketplace

This paper explores the interface between higher education and the family. Drawing on research data from south-east Wales, the paper specifically addresses the relationships within families and the choice of university. In recasting parents as consumers in a higher education marketplace, the paper discusses the tacit concerns and issues which help to frame the decisionmaking processes involved in selecting a place to study. Qualitative data are used to provide a thematic analysis of factors which parents identify as significant to the exercise of choice. In concluding, the paper considers how universities are responding to the parent as consumer, and why it will remain crucial for them to do so.