From a rebel to consumer and now a digital user: the changing role of students in British university governance
- Janja Komljenovic, Lancaster University
- Rille Raaper, Durham University
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In this talk, we will focus on the changing role of students in British higher education governance. We will review three societal periods: the welfare state, the market society and the digital economy. Within the past three decades, the student has shifted from a partner with significant involvement in governing universities, to a consumer whose influence reflects in self-interest enacted via choice and consumer rights. Our main argument is that the governing role of students is fundamentally tied to the role of the university in the society and prevailing economic order, and it is therefore changing yet again in the new phase of digital economy. We propose an approach to examine the student role in HE governance in the new digital economy as ‘governing with data’ and ‘governing of data’. In the first case, students are approached as digital users and data producers to inform university practices. In the second, they are made liable to various user agreements but have no actual influence on decision-making. We will discuss the direction of travel for the new student stakeholder as digital user in the contemporary digitalised university.
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Dr Rille Raaper is an Associate Professor in Sociology of Higher Education in the School of Education at Durham University. Rille specialises in student identity, experience and agency in marketised higher education settings. She has conducted numerous research projects and published widely in the areas of higher education policy and practice and its impact on students as learners, citizens and political agents.
