Students as customers in higher education: The (controversial) debate needs to end

Even though marketing in higher education is well established there is a continued (controversial and at times emotional) debate about who the customer is with many still unaccepting that students should be viewed as a customer in higher education. The paper examines this debate using the framework of market orientation, customer orientation and service and relationship marketing. The paper includes recommendations about ways to resolve the dispute and concludes that students must be considered customers in the development of marketing strategy.