THE EFFECT OF STUDENTS-AS-CUSTOMERS CONCEPT ON THE QUALITY OF EDUCATION AT UNIVERSITIES

In the field of education, particularly in higher education, marketization refers to higher education institutions using marketing practices in their policy and academic service, and mainly by regarding students as customers. Several factors have shifted the perspectives toward the students-as-customers approach. The main causes are the increased competition, decreased government funding, and the increased cost of education. However, adopting the concept of students as customers resulted in a misconception of the relationship between universities and students and many reviews perceive it as degrading for the educational standards. The aim of this paper is to clarify the issue of whether students should be regarded as customers by explaining the higher education quality standards as perceived by all parties pertaining to the educational path and examines the students’ performance and satisfactions at all levels