McUniversity in the Postmodern Consumer Society

Abstract

Students can be viewed as consumers of educational services and universities can be seen as means of educational consumption. As such, universities are quite outmoded and have much to learn from the new means of consumption such as credit cards, fast‐food restaurants, megamalls and cybermalls. Viewing universities through the lens of consumption brings us squarely into the realm of postmodern social theory which often equates postmodernism with the consumer society. This essay examines what a postmodern ‘McUniversity’ might look like, as well as what postmodern theory has to tell us about responding to it.