A Genealogical Account of the Development of a Consumer Metaphor in Australian Higher Education Policy

This research examined how a consumer metaphor developed and came be the pre-eminent understanding of students in Australian higher education policy. Fourteen policy documents from 1957 to 2019 were analysed. The study found that a consumer metaphor was not as prominent as initially expected. Students were more commonly presented as a resource for governments and universities. This raises some concerns about how students should be understood in higher education policy and more broadly, as Australian higher education is constructed as extracting value from students, rather than providing value to students.