• search hit 56 of 279
Back to Result List

Having, being and higher education: the marketisation of the university and the transformation of the student into consumer

  • In this paper we express concerns that the marketisation of British higher education that has accompanied its expansion has resulted in some sections becoming pedagogically limited. We draw from Fromm's humanist philosophy based on >having< to argue that the current higher education (HE) market discourse promotes a mode of existence, where students seek to >have a degree< rather than >be learners<. This connects pedagogic theory to a critique of consumer culture. We argue that a ‘market-led’ university responds to consumer calls by focusing on the content students want at a market rate. It may decrease intellectual complexity if this is not in demand, and increase connections with the workplace if this is desired. Once, under the guidance of the academic, the undergraduate had the potential to be transformed into a scholar, someone who thinks critically, but in our consumer society such ‘transformation’ is denied and ‘confirmation’ of the student as consumer is favoured. We further argue that there is a danger that the new HE's link to business through the expansion of vocational courses in business, marketing and related offerings, inevitably embeds expanded HE in a culture of having. This erodes other possible roles for education because a consumer society is unlikely to support a widened HE sector that may work to undermine its core ideology.

Export metadata

Additional Services

Share in Twitter Search Google Scholar
Metadaten
Author:Mike Molesworth, et al.
Parent Title (English):Teaching in Higher Education, Vol.14, No. 3 (2009), pp. 277-287. [Online ISSN: 1470-1294] [doi.org/10.1080/13562510902898841]
Document Type:Articles
Language:English
Year of first Publication:2009
Release Date:2024/04/04
Format:to purchase via publisher
IdNo:Molesworth_M_et_al_2009
Writings about Erich Fromm (Secondary Literature):Articles / Artikel
Erich Fromm's Library and Erich Fromm Archive:Articles / Artikel
Licence (German):
Einverstanden ✔
Diese Webseite verwendet technisch erforderliche Session-Cookies. Durch die weitere Nutzung der Webseite stimmen Sie diesem zu. Unsere Datenschutzerklärung finden Sie hier.