Ritzer in her assessment of higher education asserts that these institutions are sometimes slow to change and are likely to develop into “cathedrals of consumption'' as seen in aspects such as ATMs and shopping malls (Ritzer, 1996). Both students and parents are approaching higher education as consumers where students are regarded as customers and education are taken as a product. I tend to agree with the assertions made by Ritzer as many universities, and other higher education learning institutions have since taken the approach of the consumer product. Most students today would want the universities and colleges to operate like typical fast food restaurants where they want to see the value for their money. Personally, I tend to buy into this theory because I would want efficiency in education to be measured using the tenets of simplicity and low costs. Students today increasingly want value for the money they pay for their courses, and this is what Ritzer means when she says that higher education is becoming a consumer-product affair.
Ritzer goes ahead to term this form education as “McUniversity'' and accuses them of only functioning to reproducing knowledge instead of engaging in research and other activities that would generate more. Commercialization of education has an adverse effect on education because the students will only be provided with what they need or want instead of getting what is right for them. I find such assertions correct especially when I assess my situation in the higher education institution. First, most tutors and professors would nowadays walk into class and provide us with predetermined course outline and the required learning materials. As learners, we are required to follow these guidelines without deviation strictly. On close analysis, it becomes apparent that the previous classes in the past years had been exposed to similar standards of education. Therefore this means that the educators are doing little to add to what we are supposed to learn and further prove Ritzer who asserts that students nowadays get what they pay for.
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Ritzer further notes that “education will itself become commercialized, characterized by one-way transmission rather than exchanges’’ in asserting how the efficiency of university education is on its way downhill (Ritzer, 1996). Students will easily be monitored using smart cards hence making them more independent. As such, Ritzer says that this will bring in free labor that would further downsize the staff in the learning institutions. In assessing my situation, such a description would be true because the recent commercialization of education has reduced the proper exchange of information between the educator and the student. Furthermore, the invention of technologies such as smartcards has further reduced the need for many university staff as the students can easily be monitored. Therefore reducing staff in various faculties means that the learners have a lot to do by themselves due to the cut down on the staff members. The implication that comes out of this is a poor performance that is likely to lead to half-baked graduates who are not ready to face the real-life challenges.
Ritzer further notes that students have kept silent over the matter presumably because the commercialization of education works out best for them. She asserts that “some students might develop rational strategies to resist or adapt’’ (Ritzer, 1996). Therefore, it means that university is facing the danger of lacking in research and also offering casualized teaching amongst others. In my assessment, students in the higher learning institutions have accustomed to these new trends and are okay with the little research and the almost identical teaching method. I find myself a victim here because I would not prefer to have a semester filled with intense research which would make education cumbersome. Therefore, what remains apparent is that education is not efficient, but we have developed a mechanism to adapt to these changes, key among them being commercialization.
References
Ritzer, G. (1996). McUniversity in the postmodern consumer society. Quality in Higher Education , 2 (3), 185-199.
