ABSTRACT
Academic entitlement is also heavily informed by how students perceive their role in higher education, specifically as consumers of knowledge. In spite of genuine and important efforts toward accountability, students perceiving themselves as consumers can be a damaging proposition for higher education, especially because it increases student resistance to active learning classes while decreasing student responsibility. Students with the 'cool consumer' mentality may participate verbally in class, but comments and motivations are focused primarily on pleasing their peers. As increasing numbers of student consumers, especially first-generation and nontraditional students, engage in transactions with commercialized universities, they tend to view themselves as outsiders to academia rather than as scholars in training, particularly if the ultimate goal is a higher-paying job in the marketplace. Faculty teaching freshman courses are in a prime position to assist underprepared students by identifying gaps in readiness and intervening.
