A new “College as a Service” (CaaS) logic can help reframe a substantive debate that pulls together what seem to be very disparate strands of thinking regarding practices and policy. CaaS provides a systemic way of thinking about nettlesome challenges such as how a student’s customer profile of preferences, needs and active participation leads to student success; how information yields accountability; and how self-service can improve higher education. In this way, College as a Service is a new logic for how higher education systems behave that is distinct from a wholly financial (colleges function a certain way because of how we pay them) or political (colleges function a certain way because of who has most sway over the political process) perspective and can help us better understand how value is co-created by students and colleges and thus how it should be measured and improved.
http://www.insidehighered.com/views/2012/05/24/new-way-thinking-about-higher-education-performance-essay
