Disruptive Factors in Implementing Outcome-Based Education Curriculum at Tertiary Business Education: A Focus on Institutional Readiness

Abstract

Higher education in Bangladesh has undergone a rigorous transformation from traditional teacher-centred education into a student-centred outcome-based educational system. Implementing an outcome-based education curriculum at the tertiary level is a great challenge in Bangladesh. This study aims to determine the impact of key disruptive factors on institutional readiness to adopt the OBE curriculum at the tertiary level of business education in Bangladesh with reference to the OBE curriculum policies of the Bangladesh accreditation council. A quantitative study was conducted to investigate the research objective. Quantitative data were collected by distributing questionnaires to the sampled faculty members from different private universities in Bangladesh. A closed-ended questionnaire was used to obtain respondents’ views on the impact of the OBE curriculum structure and design, institutional factors, and faculty members’ personal factors on the university’s readiness to adopt the OBE curriculum. Pearson’s correlation and multiple regression analyses were performed to evaluate the impact of disruptive factors in implementing the OBE curriculum on institutional readiness. The OBE curriculum structure, design factors, and faculty members’ personal factors were significantly related to institutional readiness to adopt the OBE curriculum. However, institutional factors have opposite signs. Although the authors identified key challenges in implementing the OBE curriculum in Bangladesh, institutional factors need to be investigated in the future. This study was conducted on a limited sample of 120 business faculty teachers; hence, the results may not be equally significant in other faculties/disciplines. The findings of this study have demonstrated that institutional readiness to adopt the OBE curriculum successfully requires continued development in the field of OBE curriculum structure and design, as well as faculty members’ personal factors.