2006/12/13 by Michael Courtney, Amy Courtney, Courtney, Michael +2
Business, Management and Accounting · Computer Science · Engineering · Physics and Astronomy · #Engineering Education and Curriculum Development #FOS: Physical sciences #Information Systems Education and Curriculum Development #Management and Marketing Education #Physics Education (physics.ed-ph) #physics.ed-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.physics/0612117
6 pages. This is a revised version of "Who is the Customer in Higher Education?" (2006). arXiv:physics/0612117
openalex publication_date 2006/12/13 · arxiv created 2012/08/25 · arxiv updated 2012/08/28 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
As education systems move toward business models of operation, there is a strong tendency to misidentify the student as the customer. Misidentifying the student as the customer leads to interpretation of the course credit or degree as the product. The true product is the additional knowledge, skill, and ability that course credit and degree should represent. Consequences are potentially disastrous, because the notion that "the customer is always right" can lead to the perceived product (course credit or degree) meeting the desires of the misidentified "customer" (student) rather than the real product (value added to student) meeting the standards of the properly identified customers (future employers and taxpayers).