This is an academic article i read while doing research for my paper, which deals with the commodification of education, and how education today has been increasingly standardized similar to other commodities in economic markets. Author Mary Kupiec Cayton, shows how education has essentially entered the global market and has been standardized to a point where it is given a value measurable by how this “good” is produced, and sold.
“Today services, too, can be commodities, and whatever else education may be, in economic terms it is a service. Standardization has come later to higher education than to other commodities markets, but it has arrived. As with other commodities, unit cost matters, as do how “goods” are produced, measured, and sold”.
While education has in previous generations has never been thought of or viewed as a major commodity especially in economic terms, it has slowly entered this competitive global market where it is given market value. Because of this, the value of education isnt just valued by the degree itself that is attained, but also by the the ways in which that degree was attained, how it was offered, and where.
“Regulation of goods and services comes both from free trade and from government intervention, and in higher education these days, we are seeing both. For example, many for-profit universities are driving down the cost of instruction by outsourcing it to part-time workers, often with lesser qualifications than those of faculty members at more traditional four-year degree-granting institutions. In so doing, those universities are forcing a reconsideration everywhere of how to cut labor costs in order to compete. At the level of government intervention, my own state, Ohio, has developed an articulation-and-transfer policy for postsecondary institutions that guarantees the ability of credits for certain courses — for instance, U. S. history surveys — to transfer between institutions and apply directly to the major at any public postsecondary institution in the state”.
A major issue is raised here and that is the ways in which Universities have begun to financialize the ways in which they operate. Many colleges are seeking to improve profits and their “bottom line” by outsourcing teaching to other less qualified individuals. This is just one of the many profit seeking practices put into place by these institutions in order to “compete” with one another as in any competitive global market. You even have local and state government (gov’t intervention) that play a pivotal role in the ways in which colleges operate by helping establish policies that affect the ways in which credits are transffered and so on. This regulatory practice is greatly affecting the functionality of education and in effect jeopardizing the level of education available.
“The history of consumerism and commodities further suggests that as a mass market develops for certain goods and services, a luxury market often develops alongside it. The well-to-do seek out and consume scarce goods and services with which status becomes associated, and as those goods enter the mass market, the elite move on to identify new status-oriented consumables. For example, in Europe, for much of the 17th century, when coffee became popular as an exotic beverage, it was the drink of the rich. After a time, what once was a luxury became a staple of the masses”.
“Have we arrived at a point in higher education where we will see increasing divergence between degrees meant for the masses and those for the elites? How will a Wal-Mart-type degree (“Always low prices”) differ from high-end products with status value à la Lord & Taylor (“The Signature of American Style”) and those targeted, Macy’s-like, to folks in the middle (“Way to Shop!”)?”
And this is one of the major problems that is beginning to take affect. There has slowly begun to take place a division of higher education among the public and private institutions, where the quality of educaton isnt necessarily the same and neither is that degree that you would eventually attain. This “luxury” market developing among the private institutions is a perfect example of the elitism that is shaping education in this day and age. Individuals attaining degrees from such universities will unjustifiably in my opinion, be viewed in a much higher regard not just in society, but more importantly in the competitive job markets. They will be put “ahead of the line” when applying to jobs and drastically affect the value of education from public institutions.
Will this trend ever end? I personally dont think so. I think this is just the beginning especially with increasing tuitions. College is becoming less affordable, so more and more individuals will turn to these public and community colleges that offer “education for the masses”. The only individuals that would benefit from this are the upper class and elitist who can afford to attend top private institutions and continue to have a leg up on everyone else.
