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Should business schools treat students as products, customers or stakeholders?


Dr Bibek Banerjee, director, IMT Ghaziabad
Should business schools treat students as products or customers? Or should the b-schools (with education at the core of their mission), envision their primary role in transforming a set of students aspiring to participate in the global knowledge economy into a set of fine professionals? Dr Bibek Banerjee, Director, Institute of Management Technology, Ghaziabad writes that excellent b-schools should look at their students as stakeholders, and not as transactional customers and/or products.

This debate is not new for the management education fraternity. Should the students-as-customers have more say on what they ought to be taught, the way they ought to be taught or the way they ought to be evaluated?

Ordinarily, a customer is one who receives products, services or ideas from a seller, vendor or a supplier. And in contemporary business education, there is a school of thought which proselytises that students be viewed as customers wherein the idea is to give the students what they want. The issue, however, is that this students-as-customers view relies on the latters willingness and ability to participate with a well-informed view in defining and articulating their own needs and wants. And even in cases where they might be capable of it, there is an imminent danger that the bundle of values that defines these wants has such transactional and short-term focus that it diverts the institutes mission away from meaningful education, and towards training.

No doubt there is merit in the paying heed to the customers right to demand the value for their money in todays business education. The students-as-customers must demand that their curriculum reflect relevance and currency; they must demand that their faculty are able to give them developmental feedback based on substantiations and quality research; and that there should be a fair and progressive evaluation mechanism which positions them for success in the knowledge economy.

However, the discomfort with the student-as-customer paradigm arises when we inevitably stumble upon the perilous issue of satisfaction, which is defined as performance against expectation. According to me there is a serious issue with that in the context of education. What is it that a student expects from a b-school? A mere job when (s)he graduates? Or a transformational experience in the overall context of his/her intellectual and emotional development that creates a fulfilling and rewarding career that (s)he cherishes for life?

It is desirable that the students participate with all their inputs in core aspects of academic governance, to debate on and define these expectations. This way they become the co-creators of the knowledge economy they are going to live in. That said, the reality on the ground in many b-schools is that excessive customer orientation has led to student entertainment taking precedence over student education. There are other well-known sops like grade inflation and provision of 7-star resort-like facilities that have become common place among newer b-schools. B-schools of credentials would be expected to look far beyond these myopic and transactional modes of satisfaction.

On the other hand, there is the students-as-products school of thought. It is indeed true that in common parlance one is more used to hearing the phrase (s)he is a product of XYZ institute!! A product is the end result of a process, to be offered to the marketplace to satisfy a need or want. It is fashionable for b-schools to position themselves as suppliers of managerial talent, one that is better prepared to hit the ground running for the industry (the customers)! They also have metrics to project their Return on Investment either in simplistic terms such as average salaries against tuition fee, or in more exotic terms such as Net Present Value of future earnings and/or opportunity cost.

My personal point of view is that b-schools will do themselves a great service if they concentrated in viewing their role in providing a transformational experience for their students such that the students become successful in their own lives, and in the lives of those they touch. Once we ensure that, the Return on Investment will follow. The former dean of Chicago-Booth, Ed Snyder had once said, The best students dont view themselves as customers, and they shouldnt be treated as such. They look for a stretch experience with expert support. And this combination of stretch and support is the answer to the question: how can business schools get more out of their students and better prepare them for diverse careers in turbulent times in all parts of the global economy? Deep and meaningful professional development comes from setting high expectations, from challenging students, and from supporting them.

The bedrock on which this system of stretch experience with expert support is delivered to students is through a set of inspirational faculty, who create the excitement of knowledge co-creation (with students), inspired by practice on the ground and driven by rigorous and productive research. So in sum, the student-school relationship ought to go beyond the transactional approach of product-selling-to-customers! Schools of excellence ought to view their students as one of the most important stakeholders in the process of their mutual evolution. It may be useful to note here that in this journey the students spend only a few years at the physical premises of the institute. Thereafter they become alumni. And it is fair to evaluate b-schools excellence by the success of its alumni in the difference they make to the world. This way, therefore, the students (and of course the alumni) influence the DNA of a b-school as much as the school influences theirs through a symbiotic relationship for mutual good. And the seeds of that transformational process are sown through a support system of honest feedback from faculty, recruiters, alumni, staff and most importantly, from fellow students and alumni.

Likewise, the best b-schools tend to do a better job in putting in place mechanisms that make the (school-student) symbiosis fruitful through a constructive process that harnesses the students point of view in almost every aspect of academic governance. And therefore, good b-schools always encourage students (both current and past) for their considered views on suggesting revisions in curriculum, pedagogy, and evaluation mechanisms with the sole aim of bringing the very best out of the students potential. And when students feel empowered to participate in this developmental process as true stakeholders, b-schools are less likely to face their relevance crises.

The author Dr Bibek Banerjee is director, Institute of Management Technology, Ghaziabad. Prior to this, he has served as a professor of marketing at the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad where he was also managing director of the school’s executive education practice in collaboration with Duke University. He holds an MS and PhD from Purdue University.

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