The Unsettled Meaning of Undergraduate Education in a Competitive Higher Education Environment

Access to undergraduate education has expanded rapidly in recent years. This is one manifestation of a rise in the relative importance of market‐based resource allocation in higher education and a weakening of allocation based upon traditional views of merit. This change in priority has influenced the content of the undergraduate curriculum and introduced both content and methods whose legitimacy and educational value some question as universities market their products to attract enrolment. The paper discusses the relationship between allocation mechanism and “curriculum as product” and examines critically some of the more significant implications for undergraduate education such as course rigour and full‐spectrum grading.