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Higher Education Policy

, Volume 26, Issue 3, pp 291–307 | Cite as

Students: Customers, Clients or Pawns?

  • Malcolm Tight
Article
First Online:

Abstract

The metaphor of the student as a consumer or customer is widely used within contemporary higher education, and impacts on the ways in which students, academics and institutions behave. These, and a number of alternative metaphors for the student, are critically reviewed. The alternatives considered include both contemporary (student as client or as co-producer) and longstanding expressions (student as child, employer or apprentice). A new, and perhaps rather darker, metaphor, that of the student as a pawn, is then proposed. The usefulness of metaphors in higher education policy, and in analyses thereof, is considered.

Keywords

metaphor policy students 
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Copyright information

© International Association of Universities 2013

Authors and Affiliations

  • Malcolm Tight
    • 1
  1. 1.Department of Educational ResearchLancaster UniversityLancasterUK

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