The Consumer Mindset Undermines Colleges

A recent Inside Higher Ed Student Voice survey found that over 60 percent of college students view themselves as customers, an alarming sign for anyone concerned about the integrity and future of American higher education. This growing trend, increasingly normalized by both students and institutions, undermines the university’s original mission of educating informed citizens and upholding academic excellence.

Traditionally, universities have provided education, conducted research, and advanced knowledge, all while engaging with the broader community. From the beginning, colleges and universities have served as cornerstones of the American republic, preparing future leaders, educators, and public servants.

As early as the 1950s, Russell Kirk was already describing colleges as expensive social clubs for the young. In post–World War II America, a mix of factors—including a demographic boom and a surge in government funding—gradually pulled colleges and universities away from their original mission. Flush with G.I. Bill dollars and enrollees, institutions began broadening and democratizing their offerings, a shift that eventually led to today’s near-total emphasis on job training. Today, rather than cultivating civic and moral character or encouraging intellectual curiosity, many institutions have become little more than diploma mills and hedge funds with campuses.

When administrators treat their institutions like businesses, it’s no surprise that students begin to see themselves as customers. The findings of Inside Higher Ed’s survey are alarming, though hardly surprising. Russell Kirk warned of this trend back in his 1978 book Decadence and Renewal in the Higher Learning. As early as the 1950s, Kirk was already describing colleges as expensive social clubs for the young and criticizing university presidents for turning institutions into little more than real-estate ventures.

When university administrators treat their institutions like businesses whose main product is a diploma, it’s no surprise that students begin to see themselves as customers. The spread of the customer-service mentality is a clear sign that many colleges and universities have lost sight of their academic mission, and it reflects a deeper cultural decline.

The damaging effects of the consumer mindset are visible across the higher-education landscape. In an effort to boost enrollment and student satisfaction, many universities have adopted policies that encourage grade inflation. By 2021, the average GPA at Harvard had reached a record 3.8, with 79 percent of students earning grades in the “A” range.

The rise of the customer-service model has shifted universities’ focus from academic excellence to expanding student services, fueling administrative bloat. Yale University is a striking example, recently drawing attention for having more administrators than students, with 5,460 administrators serving a student body of fewer than 5,000.

Hoping to attract more students, universities are now competing over who can offer the flashiest amenities. The race for luxury facilities has reached absurd levels—Louisiana State University’s lazy river, shaped like the school’s initials, has become a symbol of higher education’s wasteful spending.

In addition to becoming bloated with bureaucracy and equipped with luxury amenities, American universities—driven by a customer-service mindset—have shifted their focus from the pursuit of knowledge to virtue-signaling and comfort-seeking. DEI initiatives, safe spaces, and trigger-warning trainings have become standard offerings, all funded by student tuition and fees.

Who’s to blame for the fact that most students now see themselves as customers of their institutions? While student attitudes play a role, the larger responsibility lies with university administrators and outdated accreditation systems that put revenue and student satisfaction ahead of academic quality and institutional mission. Too often, colleges pour more money into recruitment and marketing than into actual instruction. Luxury amenities, DEI initiatives, and inflated tuition only reinforce the consumer mindset.

The student-consumer trend will only continue to grow unless colleges and lawmakers choose to push back. University leaders must start promoting education as a public good, not just a financial transaction. Common-sense reforms that emphasize a return to civics education, the liberal arts, and cost control are gaining traction as policy priorities nationwide.

States can play a major role in pushing back against the customer-service mindset by linking public funding to academic rigor. States can play a major role in pushing back against the customer-service mindset by linking public funding to academic rigor rather than student-satisfaction metrics. Refocusing core curricula on civics education and the Western tradition is another way to challenge the rise of the student-as-consumer mentality.

Utah’s General Education Act and South Carolina’s REACH Act are encouraging steps toward meaningful higher-education reform. The General Education Act seeks to realign the core curriculum at Utah’s public universities with the Western tradition of liberal education, while the REACH Act requires students at South Carolina’s public colleges to complete a course in American history or government. Both measures address urgent gaps in today’s higher-education landscape.

We must rescue American higher education from the grip of the consumer mindset and marketplace mentality. This isn’t just a political or institutional problem—it’s a cultural one. A nation of student-consumers, rather than student leaders and thinkers, cannot sustain itself.

Jovan Tripkovic is outreach coordinator at the James G. Martin Center for Academic Renewal.