Student or Customer?

By Caroline Parry is a freelance journalist and expert on the education industry, based in London. She is a regular contributor to TopMBA.com, the TopMBA Career Guide and the TopMBA newsletter.

MBA students pay significant amounts to business schools to get their MBA qualification. According to the most recent research, the QS TopMBA.com Applicant Survey 2009, MBA candidates think more about the return on investment than the actual cost of the course when applying. But with costs as high as US$150,000, don't students have the right to see themselves as customers of the business school and not as recipient students, as one might in high school? Caroline Parry finds out.

The customer is always right, or so the mantra goes. But is that still true if the service provider makes high demands on the customer during the transaction? Is the customer still king if the service provider is constantly evaluating them to see if they are worthy of their product?

Whether an MBA candidate is a student or a customer has been a hot topic for several years, particularly in the US where a college education of any sort has comes with a high price tag. But it has never been more pertinent as recent MBA graduates face an unprecedented economic downturn and an uncertain job market.

Student as customer

An MBA has always been a significant investment for any student. With initial course fees plus books and living expenses, added to the loss of up to two years of earnings, it is a decision that few candidates can afford to take lightly.

While business schools know that MBA candidates expect high quality education and excellent resources in return for their investment, for some that is where their similarity with the definition of a customer ends.

Lisa Bevill, Associate Director of Admissions at IE Business School in Madrid, believes that the ‘student as customer' debate treads a fine line and is, perhaps, too simplistic a definition for what becomes a life-long relationship. "It implies the concept that the customer is always right and should be treated as such. However, this is hardly the case with MBA students and we should not lose sight of this because the relationship between MBA student and school is more profound."

She adds that the during the admissions process the relationship is "professional, respectful and open", and about exploring what each side can offer; but once a candidate becomes a student, the relationship is then focused in their personal development.

"Students are expected to be - and themselves expect to be - challenged and tested so that they grow throughout the program and develop greater abilities for when they return to the professional world."

That the MBA experience should lead to a student-school relationship that lasts well beyond graduation is a strongly held view across all business schools; however Veronica Hope-Hailey, dean of admissions at London's Cass Business School, believes that schools should view this as creating customers for life.

She adds that during the program candidates are "students in the lecture theatre and customers outside". She says that Cass takes its role of providing a high quality service "very seriously" but it also makes it clear to students that its approach to education is "extremely rigorous".

"Everything from the standard of faculty through to the equipment and resources on offer should meet the high standards that customers would expect but, when it comes to the teaching and the education process, they are students," she explains. "We are taking mature people and charging them a huge amount of money, they deserve good customer service. We want them to have a great experience but they have to know that they are in the English university system, which is subject to external checks, and there will be no negotiation on marks."