Page 129 - Šolsko polje, XXIX, 2018, no. 1-2: The Language of Neoliberal Education, ed. Mitja Sardoč
P. 129
isting the Iron Cage of ‘the Student Experience’
Sarah Hayes
Petar Jandrić
As higher education (HE) has come to be valued for its contribution
to the global economy, priorities have been placed on study for a
degree to directly meet the needs of industry (Hayes, 2015: p. 125).
Furthermore, in UK policy, students have been defined as ‘customers’
by the government since the introduction of tuition fees (Dearing, 1997;
Browne, 2010). Together, these developments have emphasized the role of
a degree as a consumer ‘product’, purchased to secure future employment
(Peters, Jandrić and Hayes, 2018a), rather than an experiential learning
‘process’, that continues well beyond student life (Hayes, 2015 : p. 130). We
examine how the student-as-consumer approach in HE policy has recent-
ly developed into a strong rhetoric emphasizing ‘the student experience’ as
a package, including leisure, well-being, future employment and other ‘ex-
tras’. This could be perceived as positive, where all elements of student life
are acknowledged. Alternatively, policy discourse concerning ‘the student
experience’ could also be critiqued as a concept that now transcends the
notion of a degree as a utilitarian product. A disturbing impression is then
generated, where universities are now delivering a packaged experience of
‘consumption itself ’, to students (Argenton, 2015: p. 921). What students
would individually experience, such as a ‘sense of belonging and pride in
the university’, is delivered to students, not developed by them. To exam-
ine such concerns more closely, we analyse a sample of 20 UK universi-
ty ‘student experience’ strategies, via a corpus-based Critical Discourse
Analysis (CDA). Drawing on themes from these texts, we question who
‘the student experience’ rhetoric really benefits? If a rationalized experi-
ence is constructed on behalf of students, then universities as ‘cathedrals
127
Sarah Hayes
Petar Jandrić
As higher education (HE) has come to be valued for its contribution
to the global economy, priorities have been placed on study for a
degree to directly meet the needs of industry (Hayes, 2015: p. 125).
Furthermore, in UK policy, students have been defined as ‘customers’
by the government since the introduction of tuition fees (Dearing, 1997;
Browne, 2010). Together, these developments have emphasized the role of
a degree as a consumer ‘product’, purchased to secure future employment
(Peters, Jandrić and Hayes, 2018a), rather than an experiential learning
‘process’, that continues well beyond student life (Hayes, 2015 : p. 130). We
examine how the student-as-consumer approach in HE policy has recent-
ly developed into a strong rhetoric emphasizing ‘the student experience’ as
a package, including leisure, well-being, future employment and other ‘ex-
tras’. This could be perceived as positive, where all elements of student life
are acknowledged. Alternatively, policy discourse concerning ‘the student
experience’ could also be critiqued as a concept that now transcends the
notion of a degree as a utilitarian product. A disturbing impression is then
generated, where universities are now delivering a packaged experience of
‘consumption itself ’, to students (Argenton, 2015: p. 921). What students
would individually experience, such as a ‘sense of belonging and pride in
the university’, is delivered to students, not developed by them. To exam-
ine such concerns more closely, we analyse a sample of 20 UK universi-
ty ‘student experience’ strategies, via a corpus-based Critical Discourse
Analysis (CDA). Drawing on themes from these texts, we question who
‘the student experience’ rhetoric really benefits? If a rationalized experi-
ence is constructed on behalf of students, then universities as ‘cathedrals
127
