"We're the Customer-We Pay the Tuition": Student Consumerism among Undergraduate Sociology Majors

The constructs of academic entitlement and student consumerism refer to students' attitudes toward education as a commodity and the underlying belief that as consumers, they should be catered to and given the opportunity to participate in the education process according to their preferences. Most discussions regarding these attitudes are anecdotal, but the pervasiveness of these accounts and the troubling effects that ensue warrant attention. Grade inflation, student incivility, altered classroom practices, and decreased faculty morale are all potential aftereffects of teaching students who hold academic entitlement beliefs. Numerous factors are posited as attributing to academic entitlement including personal issues, societal pressures, and broad academic practices. This paper discusses these factors and offers faculty members and administrators recommendations regarding practices that may curb or alleviate issues associated with academically entitled students.

Section: Defining Academic Entitlement and Student Consumerismmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Decreased Faculty Moralementioning

confidence: 99%

Academic Entitlement in Pharmacy Education

Cain

Romanelli

Smith

2012

“…7 This means that educators are there to serve and satisfy them. In pharmacy education, some educators may contribute to the "student as customer" perspective out of pressure to attract and retain academically competitive students.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Is a Pharmacy Student the Customer or the Product?

Holdford

2014

Academic entitlement and student consumerism have been described as a cause for unprofessional behavior in higher education. Colleges and schools of pharmacy may inadvertently encourage student consumerism and academic entitlement by misunderstanding who is the primary customer of pharmacy education. Pharmacy colleges and schools who view students as the primary customer can unintentionally pressure faculty members to relax expectations for professionalism and academic performance and thereby cause a general downward spiral in the quality of pharmacy graduates. In contrast, this paper argues that the primary customer of pharmacy education is the patient. Placing the patient at the center of the educational process is consistent with the concepts of pharmaceutical care, medication therapy management, the patient-centered home, and the oath of the pharmacist. Emphasizing the patient as the primary customer discourages academic entitlement and student consumerism and encourages an emphasis on learning how to serve the medication-related needs of the patient.

“…when they enter my classroom I expect them to earn, not buy, their grades." 22,23 Just as doctors and pharmacists have a fiducial obligation to act in the best interest of patients, faculty members have a fiducial obligation to students that involves setting high standards, caring for and about students, not tolerating uncivil or unprofessional behavior or attitudes, and ensuring graduates are prepared to honor their own fiducial obligations to the people they will serve. Customer satisfaction is not an appropriate measure of institutional success unless, from the time of their entry into the program, all students enthusiastically endorse these same goals and values.…”

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confidence: 99%

“…26 For students who view education as a commodity to be purchased (at an increasingly rising price) and who thereby view faculty members as hired hands, it is not obvious that a college experience can or should be transformative or life-changing. 23 Such a student-customer may not respond as well to challenging assignments or constructive criticism, expecting instead automatic high grades in exchange for high tuition dollars. Student-customers may prefer passivity in education, expecting the content or "goods" to be delivered to them without a need to think conceptually, deductively, or sequentially.…”

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confidence: 99%

Mixing Metaphors in Pharmacy Education is a Bad Solution for Students

Zlatic

2014

Scholarly discussion has recently been directed toward the negative effects of consumerism in pharmacy education. Frequently in these discussions, the metaphor of student-as-customer is cited as an indicator of such consumer mentality. However, the customer metaphor is more deeply entangled in the thinking on this matter than has been acknowledged, even for those who roundly criticize its use. A richer understanding of the power of metaphor and of the fiducial obligations that underlie professionalism can help to create educational paradigms more likely to meet the best interests of students, faculty members, and the general public.Keywords: educational customers, consumerism, professionalism, metaphor, fiducial obligations Three thought-provoking essays published in the American Journal of Pharmaceutical Education focused on the deleterious effects of consumerism on pharmacy education. Cain et al convincingly argued that a student sense of entitlement can undermine professional education: "Grade inflation, student incivility, altered classroom practices, and decreased faculty member morale are all potential after effects of teaching students who hold academic entitlement beliefs."1 As a response, Karpen's letter offered a pharmacy student's refreshing perspective on what students legitimately expect from the educational establishment.2 Finally, Holdford's clever and insightful essay, "Is a pharmacy student the customer or the product?" warned of the threats to education posed by a related emerging trend, the identification of students as "customers" of the educational system.3 Although Holdford's diagnosis was insightful, his proposed cure was less so: he suggested the alternative to viewing students as customers was to view them as educational products we deliver to our real customers: the students' future employers and the public who would consume the students' services. While many of his observations were on target, this remedy would likely exacerbate rather than correct the problem, for it retained the consumer mentality that underlay the designation of student as customer in the first place. Nonetheless, this student-as-customer model is indeed a pressing issue because, in both education and medicine, a consumer mentality is increasingly threatening care. A more radical solution is needed-one requiring a better understanding of both the essence of professionalism and the uses and misuses of metaphor.Some may argue that it does not make a difference what we call students, 4 but this is not a pedantic quibble over terminology. Nomenclature sets up paradigms that govern our thinking, actions, and structures. To think of students (or patients) as customers is to think metaphorically: that is, to attribute to one entity the characteristics of another in order to provide clarity or insight. 5Metaphors are not merely rhetorical or poetic devices that do nothing more than clothe our preexisting ideas in fancy dress. They are extremely important organizational tools in the formation of our ideas and structure of ou...