A Service Perspective on the Marketization of Undergraduate Education

Abstract

igher education in the United States is rapidly moving toward a marketized model of service provision, one emphasizing marketing practices based upon relevance and student satisfaction. The results of the study reported herein suggest that such strategies may not ensure equal balance between service quality and the quality of education as a service. Specifically, a study is presented suggesting that grades (an indicant of learning) are neither endogenous (positively related to) nor exogenous (antecedent to) a typical service quality/customer satisfaction model vis-à-vis Introduction to Marketing courses. If student service quality perceptions, satisfaction judgments, and engagement practices are indeed unrelated to grades at the classroom level, then a question exists as to how well a focus on student satisfaction (and relevance) actually engender student involvement in the value co-creation process in education delivery. The following study suggests diligence in balancing the quality of the educational service versus service quality practices within the context of the marketization of education, and continued efforts by service marketers to better understand the unique service marketing characteristics of the educational product. The research and managerial implications of the reported study are presented and discussed.

Moving from Marketization to Marketing of Higher Education: The Co-Creation of Value in Higher Education

“…Taylor and Judson (2011) point out that it appears difficult to conceive of long-term value creation vis-à-vis greater learning outcomes under marketized conditions. Specifically, their results suggest that grades (an indicant of learning) are neither endogenous (positively related to) or exogenous www.ccsenet.org/hes Higher Education Studies Vol.…”

“…A prevalent trend in higher education today in the United States is focus on marketization practices in higher education (Hemsley-Brown & Lowrie, 2010;Taylor & Judson, 2011). The recent general movement toward the marketization of university education can be historically traced to political foundations that resulted in an increased emphasis on personalization in pedagogy (Taylor & Judson, 2011).…”

“…The recent general movement toward the marketization of university education can be historically traced to political foundations that resulted in an increased emphasis on personalization in pedagogy (Taylor & Judson, 2011). These pressures have been exacerbated across the United States by trends related to how university education is funded (Note 1), marked increases in student loans, and the growing demand for institutions to help students secure employment post-graduation.…”

“…(Note 4) Thus, Chapelo's (2010) conclusion that universities are struggling with brand management efforts should not appear surprising. Taylor and Judson (2011), an emphasis on marketization has some disturbing implications. Table 1.…”

“…Thus, as academic institutions of higher learning face challenges associated with increasing competition for student tuition dollars, more and more universities are becoming aggressive marketing practitioners. Regretfully, however, the marketization practices employed by most universities today appear to be based on rather archaic marketing theory (Taylor & Judson, 2011). We will demonstrate that (1) these emerging marketization practices tend to be more sales-oriented than marketing oriented (i.e., marketization is not marketing), and (2) such practices lead to arguably dangerous self-reinforcing pressures which appear to focus primarily on stakeholder satisfaction instead of learning, thereby, helping to explain the observations of Arum and Roksa (2011).…”