So, what should we call... err... students?
I'm wrestling with a particularly slippery, err, customer . What do we call university, um, subscribers ? "Those who pay for their tuition"? Technically they are 'students' (" a person who is studying at a university or other place of higher education ") more than they are 'customers' (" A person who buys goods or services from a shop or business ") or 'consumers' (" A person who purchases goods and services for personal use "). Anyone who's tried to debate this soon comes to the inevitable yet unhelpful conclusion that "[s]tudents are not customers nor are they not customers" ( Trachtenberg, 2010 ). At least we can all agree that they are, at least, definitely 'students'! But is the term 'student' sufficient? And, what might we risk if we seek to change it to 'customer'? Do we run the risk of overlooking valid, customer-style expectations if we glibly dismiss the term 'cus...