Students as Consumers of Postsecondary Education: A Framework for Analysis

While many past studies have probed issues relating to students as consumers, no systematic analysis has been developed. One analytical framework developed limited aspects to: 1. identifying the characteristics of student-consumers which are unique to the group and which require special consideration, and 2. exploring the constraints which those special characteristics impose, with particular reference to information and choice. As a result, search and experience characteristics emerge as proxies for credence characteristics, which produces 2 possibilities: 1. search and experience characteristics becoming proxies in the true sense, and 2. decision by default. Conclusions point to the need for: 1. improved information flows, 2. information interpretation, and 3. better counseling. While the educational market would be difficult to police, students would be better off if they had some realistic norms against which to compare actual claims of institutions. Also, institutional claims could then be compared against each other more effectively.