Resumen de The customer concept in Universtiy Services: a classification

Mercedes Marzo Navarro, Marta Pedraja Iglesias, Pilar Rivera Torres

• The changes that European university institutions are facing should lead them to apply the marketing concept in their strategies. It is therefore necessary to clearly determine the customers and identify their needs and desires. However, specialized literature shows discrepancies when defining the concept of a university customer. This work defines the customer concept, and it compiles and analyses the existing alternatives. It then presents a proposal of university customers and a classification thereof. This classification is based on the two criteria used the most in specialized literature: i) the process being analysed (teaching, leaming and research) and ii) internal and external.