They do not buy it: exploring the extent to which entering first-year students view themselves as customers

Abstract

While a number of scholars have discussed the pervasiveness of the conceptualization of students as customers, to date there has been limited reliable research examining the extent to which students actually view themselves as customers. Using a survey that was administered to a census of entering first-year students at a large public research university (59.8% response rate), this study shows that students do not agree with many of the educational beliefs and planned behaviors associated with a customer orientation. Results of exploratory factor analysis suggested only 28.9% of respondents expressed a customer orientation. These results show that contrary to what has become common sense in postsecondary education, most students at this public university do not express a customer orientation towards their education. Such findings should make scholars and practitioners rethink some of their embedded assumptions with regards to the goals, motivations, and general educational orientations of today's college students.

Keywords:

• students as customers
• exploratory factor analysis
• free-market logic

Notes

1. This paper follows the guidelines for reporting on the procedures and results of exploratory factor analysis in published research as outlined by Henson and Roberts (2006).

2. Researchers also have to determine what type of rotation to use, but since this study resulted in a single-factor solution, no rotation was necessary.

3. A full 19 × 9 correlation matrix is available upon request.