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High Educ (2018) 76:85–100DOI 10.1007/s10734-017-0196-z
Consumerisation in UK higher education business schools:
higher fees, greater stress and debatable outcomes
Abdul Jabbar 1 & Bejan Analoui 1 & Kai Kong 1 &
Mohammed Mirza 2
Published online: 4 October 2017
# The Author(s) 2017. This article is an open access publication
Abstract For many UK higher education business schools, the continued recruitment of UK,
EU and international students is crucial for financial stability, viability and independence. Due
to increasingly competitive funding models across the sector, many institutional leaders and
administrators are making decisions typical of highly marketised consumer environments.
Thus, this paper explores academics’ perceptions of the impact of consumerisation in UK
higher education business schools. To achieve this, 22 business school academics were
interviewed within three UK higher education institutions (HEIs) in the North of England.
Participants had a minimum of three years teaching experience. Data was analysed using
template analysis taking an interpretive approach. The findings indicate that academics
perceived the introduction of tuition fees to have been the catalyst for students increasing
demonstration of customer-like behaviour: viewing the education process as transactional,
with the HEI providing a ‘paid for’ service. It is argued that these changes in UK higher
education have created tensions between university leaders and academics, creating genuine
dilemmas for those with decision-making responsibilities who must balance academic integrity
and long-term institutional financial viability.
* Abdul Jabbar
a.jabbar@hud.ac.uk
Bejan Analoui
b.analoui@hud.ac.uk
Kai Kong
k.kong@hud.ac.uk
Mohammed Mirza
m.t.mirza@hud.ac.uk
1
Department of Management, University of Huddersfield Business School, University of
Huddersfield, Huddersfield, UK
2
Department of Marketing, University of Huddersfield Business School, University of Huddersfield,
Huddersfield, UK
,86 High Educ (2018) 76:85–100
Keywords Leadership . Administration . Tuition fees . Consumerisation . Marketisation .
Student as consumer
Introduction
Recently, research has shown there has been an increase in evidence suggesting that
consumer-based practices, notions and perceptions are permeating into UK higher edu-
cation institutions (HEIs) (Nixon et al. 2016; Woodall et al. 2014). Many of these
developments have occurred since the introduction of tuition fees, following which UK
HEI leaders have implemented strategies, policies and procedures which focus on income
and revenue maximisation (Natale and Doran 2012), as opposed to the traditional staple
learning and teaching experiences (Marginson 2012; Nixon et al. 2016).
Thus, this paper explores business school academics’ perceptions of consumerisation
within higher education. The business school academics within the study work within
newer universities (post 1992) within the North of England in the UK. Post-1992
universities are ‘new’ universities which were conferred with a university title by the
government in 1992. These new post 1992 institutions are not traditionally orientated
towards research output and maintain a focus on the development of student’s vocational
skills. In order to accomplish this, we define consumerisation as ‘a social phenomenon
that empowers buyers and consumers, keeping a check on companies to ensure that the
customers receive quality products and or services at the correct price’. This definition is
based on the work of multiple researchers (Bunce et al. 2016; Lomas 2007; Nixon et al.
2016) who view the student as a consumer and the work of Ritzer (1996), who was one
of the first to discuss the ‘McUniversity’ and its impact on the wider consumer society.
The ‘McUniversity’ refers to the transformation of HEIs from knowledge generators to
service providers.
However, Ashwin et al. (2016) disagree with the view of the ‘McUniversity’ and have
suggested that students view higher education as a transformative experience which has
positively influenced their worldview and their institutional engagement. The view that
students go to university for altruistic reasons is also supported by Budd (2017), who
suggests that there is evidence that students reject the consumerist ideology and want to
learn, develop and challenge themselves in order to better themselves. While the work of
Ashwin et al. (2016) and Budd (2017) have a predominately student perspective, the
present work explores academics’ perceptions and hence views the phenomenon from a
different viewpoint.
The focus on the academic differentiates this work from previous studies which
have adopted the student perspective (Ashwin et al. 2016; Budd 2017), the investi-
gation of academic sovereignty within a market orientated environment (Molesworth
et al. 2009) and the exploration of leadership within encroaching marketing forces
(Lumby and Foskett 2015), allowing the paper to explore what is lesser known, that
being the impact of consumeristic ideology upon the academic’s role. Though this
paper explores academics’ perceptions of consumerisation within higher education, it
is important to be cognisant of the limitations imposed by the context of the study.
, High Educ (2018) 76:85–100 87
This study presents the perceptions of business school academics from within three
post-1992 institutions and so may not be representative of the UK HE sector as a
whole.
Consumerisation in higher education
While it may seem strange to talk about HE in terms of service and consumers, the introduc-
tion of tuition fees by the government to fund undergraduate and postgraduate degrees has
created a marketised environment in the UK (Natale and Doran 2012). Originally, government
policy set tuition fees to £9000 per year (Browne 2010) in the hope that not every university
would charge this maximum amount, hence creating a market of choice and competition
(Coughlan 2010). However, universities not wishing to appear ‘second best’, or ‘second rate’,
from the offset, charged the maximum amount, thus hardening student attitudes towards
education encapsulated in the view ‘I’ve paid my money give me my degree’ (Baldwin and
James 2000).
In the view of Naidoo et al. (2011), the move towards consumerisation is a global trend
with many countries attempting to increase their overall market share of higher education.
However, this approach is not universal. For example, although Germany did trial the use of
tuition fees, these were quickly abolished due to challenges in the German courts (Kehm
2014). This era of consumerisation has created a twofold problem: firstly, student expectations
are increasing (Naidoo and Williams 2015), and secondly, many HEIs have started to make
strategic decisions based on market forces which require institutional leaders to consider
competitiveness, efficiency and customer satisfaction (Bunce et al. 2016; Naidoo et al.
2011). This has created unintended consequences, with many post-1992 UK HEIs stating that
higher education is going through a process of change, with the competition for students
increasing, there is pressure to expand both the ‘core values’ and the branding of the
institution, in order to entice students (Molesworth et al. 2009).
This fundamental change has led many HEIs to embrace marketing buzzwords such as
differentiation, targeting and competitive advantage. While these strategies and tactics may
increase HEI awareness and income, the downside to such an approach has implications for
how academics instil pedagogic practices within the materials, modules and programmes they
design, and how much control they actually have over these programmes. In the view of some
researchers (Marginson and Considine 2002), the drive towards competitive advantage in-
volves creating universal, generic and commodified mass education programmes. These
programmes are driven, supported and financed by market forces with the emphasis on cost
minimisation, efficiency and student satisfaction through the mechanism of the UK National
Student Survey (NSS), which is a high-profile annual census of nearly half a million students
across the UK.
The main findings from this paper suggest academic freedom, autonomy, control and
support are all but lost or marginalised as HEI courses are developed and marketed
centrally, with little or no thought about the student experience (Schapper and Mayson
2004), or, for that matter, the impact on academics. When the focus is on the market
model of education, the student as the consumer is ‘always right’ (De Vita and Case
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