Student consumers in the age of constant connectivity: Legal and economic insights into millennials’ (and post-millennials’) schooling and education

This chapter aims to combine the methodological perspectives of media ecology and legal-economic analysis to examine how the new digital media environments and practices, combined with changes in the institutional frameworks governing higher-education (HE), are fundamentally transforming the meaning and quality of millennials’ and post-millennials’ educational experiences. It introduces the legal — institutional framework within which governing institutions and social actors have promoted the construction of the student-as-consumer (SAC) paradigm. The chapter highlights the limited effectiveness of a legal framework that views students as contractually entitled consumers in achieving its stated goal of enhancing the legal protection of students’ expectations. It explores the troubling theoretical assumptions underlying the SAC model in HE. Having identified the institutional and theoretical limitations of the SAC model, the chapter demonstrates its costs in terms of both its disruptive pedagogical effects and a lower quality of education.