"Once you call students consumers, you have already restructured every relationship on which the university depends. Definitions matter. Terms like participant, member, student, client, user, customer, citizen, and constituent carry distinct social logics."
"Students are not buyers or consumers. They are participants in the production of knowledge. More importantly, they are future members of a public that does not yet exist."
"Tuition is not proof that students are customers. It is proof that the liberal state has failed them, just as it has failed them in healthcare."
"Financialization destroys the relation between education, citizenship, and the public good, ultimately harming the societal fabric that education is meant to support."
The corporatization of American higher education has redefined students as consumers, altering the fundamental relationships within universities. This shift emphasizes transactional interactions over collaborative learning. Students should be viewed as participants in knowledge creation rather than buyers of education. The current system reflects a failure of the liberal state, which has shifted the burden of education onto individuals while underfunding institutions. This financialization disrupts the connection between education, citizenship, and societal contribution, ultimately harming the public good.
Read at Hyperallergic
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