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Students¡¯ unions face uphill battle in anti-consumerism fight

<ÁñÁ«ÊÓƵ class="standfirst">Efforts to reject a consumerist approach to higher education are undermined by unions¡¯ own reliance on money-making activities, a new study claims
June 16, 2015
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Student leaders have consistently argued that higher education should not be treated as a consumer product, claiming a ¡°students as partners¡± approach is a more effective way to manage relations between students and institutions.

Megan Dunn, the current president of the National Union of Students, argued last year that ¡°higher education as distinctive enough to require its to govern the relationship between students and providers¡±, while past president Liam Burns said that the NUS had rejected ¡°going down a consumerist route¡± in its representation of students.

However, researchers at the University of Surrey, who interviewed managers and students' unions at 10 UK universities, found anti-consumerist positions by unions had ¡°not been successful¡±.

In a paper published in the British Journal of Sociology of Education this month, Rachel Brooks, the study¡¯s lead author, said that the nature of relationships between unions and their university often makes it difficult for students' unions to reject consumerism ¨C either because they have little independence to develop their own agenda due to financial dependence on their institution, or because they are dependent on their own consumer activities (such as bars, clubs and shops) to retain some independent income.

¡°The irony for students' unions is that one of the main means of retaining independence and being able to resist consumerist agendas, is by embracing commercialism and providing services to paying students,¡± said Professor Brooks.?

?jack.grove@tesglobal.com

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<ÁñÁ«ÊÓƵ class="pane-title"> Reader's comments (1)
Either this research or this article are very confused, Jack. Students' Unions are arguing against consumerism in Higher Education... not against consumerism everywhere. Buying a sandwich or a beer are very much consumer activities... studying for a degree is not. It would have been really nice if you could have gone into the research in a bit more detail to explore HOW Surrey reached their findings that anti-consumerist positions by unions had ¡°not been successful¡±.
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