The Student-As-Customer Debate Towards a Transformational Higher Education: Quality, TQM, and Stakeholder Perspectives

Abstract

This study analyses the student-as-customer metaphor in HE, interrogating its origins in Total Quality Management (TQM) principles, managerialism, and marketisation, and its implications for pedagogical practices and HE missions, as well as the fragmented debates surrounding its adoption. This study systematically reviewed the literature and synthesised scholarly perspectives across conceptions of quality, TQM implementation, and conceptualisations of the student role. The student-as-customer metaphor foregrounds a fundamental tension between academic autonomy and market accountability. While proponents of the metaphor cite enhanced institutional responsiveness and student empowerment, critics argue that it threatens pedagogical integrity, commodifies knowledge, and erodes the transformational agenda of HE. The study indicates that recontextualising the metaphor in HE from a public good to a private commodity may affect educational outcomes, calling for a balance in stakeholders’ perspectives.