A reflection on the Marketisation of education and the concept of "students as consumers"

Document Type : پژوهشی

Author

• Hamdollah Mohammadi

Assistant Professor, Department of Educational Sciences, Farhangian University, Tehran, Iran

10.22067/fedu.2025.89438.1364

Abstract

The purpose of the present research is to examine marketization and the concept of "students as consumers" in education. To achieve this, the concept analysis method (concept structure evaluation) was employed. First, the theoretical foundations of marketization within neoliberalism, such as "Homo Economicus," "the market as a spontaneous order," and positive liberalism, were examined. In the second step, various elements of marketization in education were analyzed. Finally, marketization, particularly within Iran's educational system, was critiqued. The findings show that marketization involves expanding the model of Homo Economicus, a self-centered, competitive, utility-maximizing individual, to all social spheres, thereby subjecting these spheres to the rule of economic rationality. Neoliberal thinkers such as Gary Becker, Milton Friedman, and Friedrich Hayek view the market as a superior mechanism that guarantees conditions for free choice and competition across other social fields. Key aspects of marketization include commercialization, the commodification of knowledge, privatization, students as consumers, New Public Management (NPM), performance evaluation and quality assurance, standardization, and competitiveness. Critical reviews indicate that marketization, by fostering an audit culture and a quantitative approach to assessment, leads to the development of unequal power dynamics in educational institutions. Additionally, by reducing the relationship between teachers and students to a seller-consumer dynamic, it diminishes the traditional and religious values of knowledge and the role of the teacher. On the other hand, the anthropological foundations of marketization contradict the goals of Islamic education.

Keywords

• Marketisation
• education
• Neoliberalism
• market-oriented reforms
• student as consumer

Main Subjects

• Educational Philosophy

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