@book {4237, title = {Students as Consumers in Marketised Higher Education Systems: An Exploration of Discourse and Practice [forthcoming on Routledge]}, series = {Research into Higher Education}, year = {2025}, publisher = {Routledge (Co-published with the Society for Research into Higher Education)}, organization = {Routledge (Co-published with the Society for Research into Higher Education)}, author = {C. Azevedo} } @article {4400, title = {Students as (More Than) Consumers? An Exploration of Undergraduates{\textquoteright} Discourses and Practices in Marketised Higher Education}, journal = {Higher Education Quarterly}, volume = {79}, year = {2025}, month = {08/2025}, type = {Research Article}, abstract = {

{\textquoteleft}Students as consumers{\textquoteright} has become the dominant discourse applied to English undergraduate students in the United Kingdom. This construction by policymakers is linked to the marketisation of higher education and the increased financial contribution of English students towards their studies. However, the construction of students as consumers, from their perspectives, has received little empirical attention. Drawing on in-depth qualitative interviews with English undergraduates in England and Scotland, this article argues that while policymakers construct students as consumers, students do not enact this uniformly. The degrees to which their discourses and practices present aspects of consumerism, instrumentality and passivity vary considerably and are enacted in different combinations according to the number of contact hours on a course, and socio-economic and education backgrounds. This article provides a comprehensive picture of students in a marketised system and shows how {\textquoteleft}students as consumers{\textquoteright} impacts students{\textquoteright} discourses and practices, informing higher education management and policymakers about its potential consequences.

}, doi = { https://doi.org/10.1111/hequ.70060}, author = {C. Azevedo} } @article {4401, title = {Students as (More Than) Consumers? An Exploration of Undergraduates{\textquoteright} Discourses and Practices in Marketised Higher Education}, journal = {Higher Education Quarterly}, volume = {79}, year = {2025}, month = {08/2025}, type = {Research Article}, abstract = {

{\textquoteleft}Students as consumers{\textquoteright} has become the dominant discourse applied to English undergraduate students in the United Kingdom. This construction by policymakers is linked to the marketisation of higher education and the increased financial contribution of English students towards their studies. However, the construction of students as consumers, from their perspectives, has received little empirical attention. Drawing on in-depth qualitative interviews with English undergraduates in England and Scotland, this article argues that while policymakers construct students as consumers, students do not enact this uniformly. The degrees to which their discourses and practices present aspects of consumerism, instrumentality and passivity vary considerably and are enacted in different combinations according to the number of contact hours on a course, and socio-economic and education backgrounds. This article provides a comprehensive picture of students in a marketised system and shows how {\textquoteleft}students as consumers{\textquoteright} impacts students{\textquoteright} discourses and practices, informing higher education management and policymakers about its potential consequences.

}, issn = {0951-5224}, doi = {https://doi.org/10.1111/hequ.70060}, author = {C. Azevedo} } @article {4255, title = {Students in the global higher education market: identities, pathways, and political agency}, journal = {Higher Education}, year = {2024}, doi = {https://doi.org/10.1007/s10734-024-01294-y}, url = {https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10734-024-01294-y}, author = {C. Azevedo} } @conference {4236, title = {A Bourdieusian analysis of British students{\textquoteright} neoliberal career aspirations and strategies: Grooming (for) the {\textquoteright}good life{\textquoteright}}, booktitle = {13th International Critical Management Studies Conference }, year = {2023}, month = {06/2023}, address = {Nottingham, United Kingdom}, author = {C. Azevedo} } @conference {4239, title = {Students as (more than) consumers? A Bourdieusian exploration of English undergraduates{\textquoteright} identities}, booktitle = {13th International EUREDOCS Conference}, year = {2023}, month = {06/2024}, address = {Lausanne, Switzerland}, author = {C. Azevedo} } @mastersthesis {4238, title = {Students as (More Than) Consumers? A Bourdieusian Exploration of English Undergraduates{\textquoteright} Discourses on and Practices in Higher Education}, volume = {Doctoral Degree}, year = {2022}, month = {04/2022}, school = {The Open University}, type = {Monograph}, address = {Milton Keynes, United Kingdom}, abstract = {

{\textquoteleft}Students as consumers{\textquoteright} has become the dominant discourse applied to English undergraduate students in the UK. The production and reproduction of this construction by both the UK policymakers and the academic literature is significantly connected to two main developments: the marketisation of higher education (HE) and the increased financial contribution of English students towards their studies in the UK. Nonetheless, there is still a lack of empirical studies incorporating English undergraduate students{\textquoteright} perspectives. Therefore, this study aims to explore English undergraduates{\textquoteright} discourses on and practices in a neoliberalised higher education system, specifically, how, or if, they enact the dominant construction of students as consumers of HE. The three main objectives are: (1) to examine how, if at all, the socioeconomic and educational backgrounds of English undergraduates shape their understandings of HE; (2) to explore how students construct their experiences and struggles within the field of HE, particularly how they conceptualise their positions and dispositions in relation to it; and (3) to appreciate how English undergraduates{\textquoteright} aspirations and expectations for the future, specifically regarding employability, relate to their discourses on and practices in HE. The study involves 37 in-depth, semi-structured qualitative interviews with existing and soon-to-be English undergraduates at different types of universities in England and Scotland. The data was analysed using thematic analysis and drawing on a theoretical model based on Bourdieusian theory complemented by a poststructuralist concept of identity, in which one helps to illuminate the other, enriching the understanding of the interrelationship between individuals and social structure(s) and contributing to extending Bourdieusian literature. The analysis of the findings informs several original contributions regarding English undergraduates{\textquoteright} discourses and practices. Importantly, it shows that, among other aspects, their socioeconomic and educational backgrounds considerably impact the ways in which they enact consumerist discourses on and practices in HE. In this way, this study provides a more nuanced and heterogeneous construction of contemporary English undergraduate students{\textquoteright} identities.

}, doi = {https://doi.org/10.21954/ou.ro.00014a5a}, author = {C. Azevedo} } @conference {4235, title = {Higher education students in the UK: A future of possibilities or a lonely road?}, booktitle = {1st Scuola Democratica International Conference}, year = {2019}, month = {06/2019}, address = {Cagliari, Italy}, author = {C. Azevedo} } @conference {4233, title = {Students as consumers? A surprisingly mundane metaphor to explain a complex reality [shortlisted for the best doctoral student paper award]}, booktitle = {34th EGOS (European Group for Organizational Studies) Conference}, year = {2018}, month = {07/2018}, address = {Tallinn, Estonia}, author = {C. Azevedo and Clarke, C.} } @conference {4234, title = {Students as consumers? An exploration of students{\textquoteright} discourse within the managerialised university}, booktitle = {SCOS {\textendash} Standing Conference on Organizational Symbolism}, year = {2018}, month = {08/2018}, address = {Tokyo, Japan}, author = {C. Azevedo} } @conference {4232, title = {Is the customer always right? An exploration of academic-student identities within the managerialised university}, booktitle = {BAM - British Academy of management}, year = {2016}, month = {09/2016}, address = {Newcastle, United Kingdom}, author = {C. Azevedo} }