English

Catherine Forje Lema

doi:10.5897/jpapr2020.0475

Abstract

Considerable concern is being paid to the professionalization of education. Professionalising higher education in a way in many countries is trying to build a bridge between theory and practice. First of all, it is important to know and understand that academics cannot be professionalised. This paper aims to explore a way to professionalise higher education. Data for the study is based on books and interviews with business people and university management/entrepreneurship students. A total of 225 interviewees, were distributed as follows: Undergraduate management/entrepreneurship students, 100; MBA students, 61; EMBA students, 14; business people, 50. Frequency distribution table was used to analyse the data collected. The result suggests that some areas of education can be professionalised, by making it practical through the introduction of plays, games, storytelling and using proverbs. The research suggests a democratic approach whereby the opinions of students are listened to and considered in the process of teaching and learning. The conclusion is that, activities such as self-paced design projects of taking students outside the lecture halls or classrooms either for practical work or discussions under a more relaxed and perhaps more conducive, attractive and enabling environments need to be adopted. This approach is likely to provide a new view of teaching and motivations for creative and innovative ideas generation to take place with greater dividends to the overall progress of professionalisation and society.  Proactive policy recommendations are progressive.   Key words: Academics, creating, excellence creating new teaching environments, professionalisation, practical work, creativity, innovation.

Highlights

The paper begins with a lengthy quote from Nancy S
The study is aimed at exposing both students and lecturers to the problems surrounding the professionalisation of higher education; to enlighten lecturers on what professionalisation of higher education outside the already professionalized subjects such as, law, medicine entails, and the power of expertise in a discipline; to prepare lecturers to understand and respect professionalism in order to inculcate in students the norms, values and skills which according to Hampton et al (2009) they possess; to seek different means of exposing students to the world of work; and to exploit the possibilities of making students professionals within their disciplines
The Executive Masters in Business Administration (EMBA) students, being mature complained about lack of experience of some of the lecturers teaching them

Summary

Introduction

The paper begins with a lengthy quote from Nancy S. Alder of the faculty of Management, Mcgill University, Canada, “Whereas the challenge to compete successfully globally has been brandished most frequently at business executives, the challenge is but to identically, compelling for government leaders. In today’s interdependent world, no leader-whether government or corporate, whether from the for-profit or not-for-profit sector has the luxury of narrowing the scope of his/her thinking to within predefined, political, economic, or cultural boundaries. Expanding beyond historic boundaries requires that we learn to manage and to think differently (Adler and Jelinek, 1986).”.

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