Higher Education Curriculum Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Higher Education Curriculum - Essay Example As the report stresses in higher education, an academic curriculum is an academic plan that seeks to enable a learning experience as outlined in its blueprint for college and university students. The curriculum is also under a broad definition, which includes several constituents. The first is the goals for the student receiving the education; they include skills under development, knowledge gained under the curriculum and the attitude with which this knowledge is received. The second constituent in the curriculum is the content offered by the system. This is described as the subject matter which is studied in the learning experience. Sequence is also another important constituent of a curriculum. Sequence is the specific order with which information discourse to the learners. This paper discusses that the higher education curriculum has been under constant critique from its introduction due to several factors. During the 1980’s the critics were most aggressive citing lack of quality in the curriculum, poor accessibility by the learners and lack of relevance in terms of the needs of the learners. The job market and changes in tandem with the emerging challenges. This also influences the curriculum in terms of content. Therefore, there has to be constant change in order for the synchronization of students going through the higher education centers. In developing a curriculum, one has to consider the expectations of the learners from the curriculum, and the expectations of the job market from the learners.... The critiques in the 80’s were mostly managers and company heads who complained that the graduates they received had no knowledge on how to tackle problems. In developing a curriculum, one has to consider the expectations of the learners from the curriculum, and the expectations of the job market from the learners. In this way the curriculum developed is suitable for both the learner and the employer. As mentioned above, a curriculum is only effective if it molds learners to fit perfectly into the job market with less dependence on the bosses. The heads of the job fields are the main forces of change for a curriculum. No matter how much a higher learning institution feels it is providing well-educated graduates the job owners are always the final determinants of that. If they determine that a curriculum does not equip the graduates wholly, they point out where changes should be carried out and then the change is introduced to the curriculum. In changing a curriculum, the first step is identifying the problems in the already existing curriculum. In this stage, research is conducted pointing out exactly where there are limitations in the curriculum. This is done throughout the system including the knowledge provided by the institution, the method of providing it, how the learners perceive it and the sequence with which it is under provision. This step entails thorough scrutiny of the curriculum and identification of all problems. The second step is assessing what learners are available and what kind of graduates the market requires. In this stage, consideration of the learner’s expectation is important. The next step is to outline the goals and objectives of the curriculum, which help in carrying out the fourth step which is