Considering Market-Based Instruments for Consumer Protection in Higher Education

Abstract

Consumer protection, Higher education, Market solutions, Quality assurance,

Effectiveness of regulatory interventions on firm behavior: a randomized field experiment with e-commerce firms

“…Feindt et al (2002) find that an informative website that fosters interaction with customers is one of the critical success factors for e-commerce firms. For the market for higher education, for instance, Mause (2010) finds that sellers have incentives to organize a quality information system with the help of private-party intermediaries, making regulatory intervention to protect the buyers on this market unnecessary. This does not mean, however, that online sellers always have an incentive to be as informative as possible.…”

“…Governments can choose from a number of options to reduce the information asymmetry, such as subsidizing private provision of product information, making the disclosure of product information legally obligatory and protecting consumers against deceptive advertising by sellers (Mause 2010). Regarding online shops registered in the Netherlands, the Dutch government has chosen to implement information-disclosure rules in consumer legislation.…”

Students' perception of quality assurance activities

“…Generally, there are several main actors in the higher education market who work towards enhancing the QA activities (Mause, 2010). In Poland there is the especial State Accreditation Committees for higher education that passed through several development stages to end at 2011 by the independent Polish Accreditation Committee (PKA) (Macioł, 2012).…”

“…Moreover, to have better international position some universities are accredited by international accreditation agencies (Macioł, 2012). It should be noted that the QA activities are used as an instrument for students' protection in higher education (Mause, 2010). The following section highlights the main actors who shape QA in the Polish higher education system.…”

“…It should be noted that the ranking providers are considered a tool for consumer information and protection. In addition, suppliers of the rankings are representing an information market from a third party in order to communicate trusted information to the potential students (Mause, 2010). The assessing of the learning environment that enables graduates to act as change agents for the sustainable development of the society is considered as one of the main factors that influence the ranking procedures (Barth et al, 2007).…”