Her majesty the student: marketised higher education and the narcissistic (dis)satisfactions of the student-consumer

ABSTRACT

Intensifying marketisation across higher education (HE) in England continues to generate critical commentary on the potentially devastating consequences of market logic for pedagogy. In this paper, we consider the student-consumer prominent in these debates as a contested yet under-analysed entity. In contrast to the dominance of homo economicus discursively constructed in policy, we offer a psychoanalytically informed interpretation of undergraduate student narratives, in an educational culture in which the student is positioned as sovereign consumer. We report findings drawn from in-depth interviews that sought to investigate students’ experiences of choice within their university experience. Our critical interpretation shows how market ideology in an HE context amplifies the expression of deeper narcissistic desires and aggressive instincts that appear to underpin some of the student ‘satisfaction’ and ‘dissatisfaction’ so crucial to the contemporary marketised HE institution. Our analysis suggests that narcissistic gratifications and frustrations may lie at the root of the damage to pedagogy inflicted by unreflective neoliberal agendas.

KEYWORDS:

• marketisation
• narcissism
• pedagogy
• satisfaction
• student as consumer
• student experience

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. This is of course a delusion as the film actually centres on portraying the considerable care and support of an academic and a psychotherapist in helping the protagonist fulfil his potential.

2. With thanks to Robert Cluley for this observation.