Students Are Not Customers: Reframing Student’s Role in Higher Education Through Value Co-creation and Service-Dominant Logic

This study explores student’s role in higher education (HE) in terms of Service-Dominant logic and value co-creation. Traditionally, students have been designated as HE customers through the metaphor “students-as-customers.” This study challenges this notion by highlighting the limitations of this view, which is mainly based on HE institutions’ traditional marketing practices. Instead, through a critical review, based on service-dominant logic of marketing, and based on the recent research, it proposes that HE should be conceived as a service ecosystem, where students are active players with the main role of co-creating their education. Specifically, students should build an identity in an ecosystem that promotes better learning experience. Implications for university policies are discussed.