People often use the language of business when discussing education. When using this language, students are considered customers and faculty are considered employees of the educational institution.

In lots of ways, this language is appropriate. Faculty really are employees; universities have budgets, revenue and expenses and need to ensure that the bottom line is considered when making decisions.

But there are ways in which this language of business is inappropriate for an educational institution. One such area is in customer relations and customer choice.  In most business transactions, a customer purchases a product or service. When the terms of the transaction are transparent and there is a reasonable equality of knowledge on both sides of the transaction, both the customer and the business understand what makes for a successful transaction. Most people can tell when their 45-inch plasma TV is not functioning well and so should return it for replacement or repair under warranty terms.

Certain professional transactions lack this equity of knowledge. Medical transactions rarely have such an equity. When I go to a specialist for a consultation about a pain in the neck, I don’t have the same knowledge as the physician does, however much I have consulted with my online sources prior to the appointment. That is why it is often wise to take advantage of a second opinion before making difficult health care decisions.

Education is even more problematic a transaction than health care in terms of balance of knowledge. There is necessarily an imbalance because a purpose of education is the transmission of knowledge from the teacher to the student. In addition, the goals of education are varied and diverse. In a pluralistic democratic society, it is perfectly appropriate to have different educational institutions providing different kinds of education. Most importantly, successful educational transactions fundamentally change the student. When I graduated with my bachelor’s degree a long time ago, I was a very different person than when I arrived on campus four years previously.

There are several important implications of this. Students will have a great deal of difficulty choosing what sort of educational institution they should attend. This is because the institution will shape the person he or she becomes. And incoming students may not be able to effectively evaluate their education prior to engaging in it.

Educational institutions should rely more on external accreditation and less from student reports because of this imbalance of knowledge. Because the language of business does not easily fit into the goals and purposes of education, we should recognize where this language leads us astray.