Stigler argued students lack the qualifications to judge course or research quality.

Evidence

Stigler objected to the proposal to promote student sovereignty over higher education. He argued that students lacked the qualifications to judge either the quality of a course or the quality of research. He noted dryly: “At Minnesota, 2 Mt. Pèlerin Members [were] at [the] bottom in 1946.” At that time, the University of Minnesota’s Department of Economics employed three MPS members: Rogge, Stigler, and Milton Friedman. — Dieter Plehwe, Quinn Slobodian & Philip Mirowski (eds.), Nine Lives of Neoliberalism, 105

Categorization

• QUESTION: Stigler’s elitist stance on education sits oddly with the usual image of Chicago economists as market-fundamentalists who trusted consumer choice. Worth investigating how this reconciles with his later views on regulation and information.
• XREF: connects to: Stigler rejected collegiate self-governance as a safeguard of academic freedom — Dieter Plehwe, Quinn Slobodian & Philip Mirowski (eds.), Nine Lives of Neoliberalism, 138

Broader Connections

• Stigler rejected collegiate self-governance as a safeguard of academic freedom #expands (0.85) — Dieter Plehwe, Quinn Slobodian & Philip Mirowski (eds.), Nine Lives of Neoliberalism, 138