<p>It’s ironic, though, that we are encouraged by some to think about education in terms of a business metaphor, with education as the product, the students as the customers, with the end goal of making sure that there is a good ‘return on investment’. </p>
<p>And we complain when we see that colleges don’t always behave like other ‘businesses’ (I saw posts on other threads throughout the years when people complain about need-based aid that in no other business is the price you pay dependent on how much you earn).</p>
<p>And yet, when colleges do start to do those sorts of things that businesses do to lure their ‘customers’ (students), such as ‘discounting’, that metaphor is immediately pulled out from under them, and these institutions are compared to ‘used car salemen’, etc, with the practice considered inappropriate for an institution of higher education.</p>