BA in Computing? Would you like fries with that?

I often wonder how long it will take to get to this. Having returned to university after a near enough 18 month absence, I was staggered to see how campus based marketing has clicked through the gears. Indeed, the central canteen/recreation area is beginning to resemble the main strip in Faliraki as opposed to an area where academics can give their grey matter a well-deserved rest. Virgin Media, hotpant sporting promotional girls, even Kingsmill were pushing their brand last week. It's always been there I know and maybe I embraced it as a fresher, but now as a cynical fourth year I'm not so forgiving. However, beneath what is increasingly looking like a rant, I'm trying to make a valid point.

Where will this marketing activity end? Surely we as students sign up for university courses to further ourselves, to study areas of academia that interest us? At what point do we agree to be courted by anybody who knows how to set up a promotional stand. With online learning becoming central to may university courses, and independent learning constantly being pushed as the key to success, whose to say that campus marketing may lead to a further erosion of traditional campus teaching, with students opting out of running the promotional gauntlet. Were we ever given a box that said "Please tick here if you don't wish to receive further information about our products and services in the Bournemouth area"?.

In essence, I think times have changed and being a student in 2008 is hugely different to being a student in even 1998. Higher education is now a marketplace as opposed to being something more akin to a public service and marketisation is safely encossed within the components of the university dynamic. Anybody who signs up for a course from now on will undoubtedley have a fantastic life experience and will enjoy studying what truly interests them, but they will also be just another consumer in the marketplace, whose pound is as good as the next person's, and I really don't forsee how this can ever change now.

What I'm asking really is is this a good thing? Are you happy to receive information about the latest deals, after all as a student you'll never be worse off, you're always looking to save a few quid. Or, as in my case, is this presence a constant vex for you, do you just want to get to your lecture on time without these distractions and find it hard to engage with Dave from Virgin telling you he can "cut you a deal" on broadband or Holly from Walkabout offering you 6 shots for a pound and naming rights to her first child?

All comments welcome!