Neoliberal Ideology and College Students: Developing a Customer Orientation While in College

Abstract

This longitudinal study investigates changes in the extent to which students express or reject a customer orientation towards their education from their initial summer orientation to the end of their second year in college.  Fifteen of the 19 items associated with a customer orientation included in the survey (N=3885, n=1085, RR= 28%) exhibited statistically significant changes, all in ways consistent with a greater expression of a customer approach.  Results also indicated that while students increasingly expressed a customer orientation, overall, they continued not to express beliefs consistent with a customer approach. Implications are discussed within the framework of neoliberal ideology.