I context that students are the primary customer, It seems more likely to me that society is the ultimate customer. Education serves a much broader purpose than satisfying the developmental needs of the individual. For more on this, and my position I can refer you to my paper on the subject.

Arnold Pears. Does quality assurance enhance the quality of computing education? In Tony Clear and John Hamer, editors, Proceedings of the 12th Australasian Computer Science Education Conference, CRPIT, volume 103. ACM Press New York, NY, USA, 2010.

I meant "contend" not "context" of course, darn iPad

The other determinant could be the job market- institutions where these products will find themselves upon graduation. Are the level of their performance at par with what is expected of them by the institutions? what about those that are being served by these products? what do they say about the level of their job competence: knowledge, skills, and attitudes?

Let me ask a related question. If what industry wanted was highly technically skilled individuals who would do whatever they were asked to do despite the environmental and ethical consequences should education then produce such individuals. I think not! The goal of education, and thus also higher education I believe is to produce sophisticated and highly skilled individuals capable of making responsible and thoughtful contributions to the development of their society, the world at large, and contribute to the future of mankind. Education should probably also empower the individual, and provide industry and government with skilled individuals whose expertise they can draw upon in order to advance their enterprise, but, I don't think that the main aim of education is to provide skilled employees to industry.

Well, we have had a great discussion this morning on the role of sustainability in higher education, which seems very relevant to this discussion. A key question we want every graduate to have in their minds is: "what is a good solution?". So, whether that is technical, social, environmental, economic, or other, a professional should be able to make conscious decisions based on explicit criteria. These criteria often need to be developed with others (through stakeholder consultation). So, even though someone is working in a particular industry, they should also see that they are members of a society and sometimes society's needs are in conflict with the company's. They need to understand that ultimately they are responsible to society before the company. I certainly wouldn't want any educational institution to be so utilitarian that it decided to not tell their students about their responsibility to society - we're just here to tell you how to do your job! OMG! We want to graduate intelligent decision makers who will make a better world.

At my institution student representatives are present at all decision making meetings; in fact the meeting cannot take place without their presence. They come quite often with well prepared plans, and seldom present barriers to well-reasoned adjustments in quality improvement. However, there is a tendency from their part to accept changes that makes their lives easier and to show opposition to changes that may require more work, time or finances. Overall, I must agree with Roger and others who see the issue symbiotic. I think and maintain that the productive way is to go through considerate consultation, cooperation, and compromise with our students in enhancing THEIR learning and OUR teaching.

Hear, hear!

I have two thoughts on this matter. Firstly, I think it is important that we recognise student voice and I would have thought this is a given in education regardless as to whether the student is 5 or 55. Secondly, I suggest the use of the word consumer implies that education is a product to be bought and sold. I view education as a process, continually negotiated between learner and teacher.

Dear Arun

Investigating and utilizing the feedback, academic staff opinions and students’ perceptions on teaching and learning will impact the quality of teaching in HEIs and play an important role in expanding the reputation of institutions.

Please refer to

. Quality Teaching of Private HEIs: Comparative Study based on Students’ Perceptions and Expectations. Int. J. of Quality and Innovation , 2017, Vol.3, No.2/3/4, pp. 209-228(Inderscience).

HEIs Quality Improvement Through Students and Academic Staff’s Perception: Data Analysis and Robustness of the Results. International Journal for Quality Research, 2017, Vol.11, No.2, pp.261-278.

Regards,

Zuhair

Some additional papers on the same topic, which are avaliable are:

Z. A. Al-Hemyari, and A. Al-Humairi (2017). Quality Teaching of Private HEIs: Comparative Study based on Students’ Perceptions and Expectations. Int. J. of Quality and Innovation, Vol. 3, Nos. 2/3/4, pp. 209-228 (Inderscience).

Al-Hemyari and S. Al-Balushi (2017). Students’ Perceptions and Expectations in Quality Teaching of Private HEIs: Comparative Study. 4th OQNHE Conference 2017, Muscat, pp.1-14.

Z. A. Al-Hemyari and A. M. Al-Sarmi (2015). Standards, benchmarks and qualitative indicators to enhance the institution’s activities and performance: Surveys and data analysis. International Journal of Knowledge-Based Organizations (IJKBO), 5 (4), pp.38-62

Regards,

Zuhair

Interesting question & nice contributions. I am following.

Thank you very much for your thoughts and feedback on this specific topic. We developed a model involving students feedback to improve the quality of higher education. Recently, we developed a new rarting scale to evaluate the quality of Higher Education Program using six sigma model and it can be assessed through the following link: Article Appraisal of students experience survey (SES) as a measure t...

We are in the process of developing a comprehesive model involving all the stakeholders (Students, Faculty, Employers, Alumni and interns [i.e. for health programs])and your inputs are highly solicited.

Will update the progress to all the contributors.

Best Regards

Dr. Arun