Students or Customers?
Written by George Batzanopoulos
As changes take place quietly behind the scenes, each new beginning reminds us of the need to reassess things. On the occasion of the start of my final semester, I write this reflection on the contemporary university.
The establishment of tuition fees by universities and their continuous increase have transformed the university from an educational institution into a business. Subject to an economic framework, the university has ceded control to profit. The degree is now a material commodity, which is not earned but is the object of a transaction between the student and the university, establishing a client relationship between the two. In order to maintain its operational functionality, the university-seller will accommodate the student-buyer as much as possible. In this way, it will avoid extending his stay at the university, allowing it to serve more customers.
Enthralled by the ease and profitability of transactions, the university will renounce its authentic self. Indifferent to the intellectuality of its core, it will resort to constantly readjusting its image to ephemerally align itself with trends and entice the largest possible number of customers. Its former self has faded into oblivion. Its alien nature is gradually eroding it, and activism (ακτιβισμός) — defined as the action as an end in itself — will express this erosion. It will cover the seller like a veil, fuelling its fabricated image while, through its transparency, it will expose the hollowness of this degenerate institution.
The reconstitution of the university as an intellectual institution is, for the student, a matter of self-consciousness. And his guide towards it will be questioning. Recognising himself as a customer is necessary to contrast himself to a true student. Only through it can he perceive his true self and his relation to education. In order to distinguish between the fabricated and the real; to overtake the vagueness of activism and focus on what is essential.
Your incisive reflection on the modern university is both thought-provoking and eloquently written, inviting readers to reconsider the true essence of education. Thank you for sparking such an important dialogue.