Students as Consumers? Chinese International Students’ Perspectives and Experiences in UK Universities

With the neoliberal ideology permeating the British higher education (HE) sector, students are repositioned as consumers, which has attracted substantial criticism. However, little empirical evidence proves that students identify themselves as consumers. This study engages Chinese international students from 43 universities in the United Kingdom (UK) with 848 survey responses and 51 interviews to contribute their perspectives and experiences on the controversial proposition.

Findings capture some consumerism features among students, but these relate to more marginal parts of the student experience. A range of intrinsic motivations drive students to engage with their studies, such as subject interest and self-development. Despite paying high tuition, most students do not express entitlement to a degree with minimum effort. While some students support consumer rights, they challenge the rationality of consumer identity conflicting with their other social categories.

Chinese students are highly aware of marketisation and their role as international students in perceived profit-making intention in UK HE. However, their attitudes towards marketisation executed by different HE stakeholders vary. Students show greater acceptance of the UK government and university managers marketising HE so that more international students can study in the UK and sufficient funding can be devoted to better facilities and teaching. They are very critical of applying the market mechanisms to teaching and learning. They urge their teaching staff to see their demands stemming from their identities as learners rather than consumers.

This study sheds light on the rise of student consumerism and the impacts of marketisation on students’ lives and studies. The empirical insights challenge the pervasiveness of the conceptualisation of students as consumers and broaden institutional practitioners’ understanding of students’ educational orientation and identity construction. The results inform policymakers and institutional practitioners to rethink student-consumer positioning and promote more scholarly attention to international student construction in higher education policy.