Abstract
This case study describe how Bahrain Polytechnic maintains academic quality while responding to students’ expectations that prior learning will be recognized in a competitive market. Although recognising prior learning is important for enhancing the student experience, Higher Education Institutions (HEI’s) need confidence in the quality of transferring students prior learning. Bahrain Polytechnic differ from other HEI’s in the Kingdom of Bahrain in that it delivers applied, professional and technical qualifications. Graduates are expected to be work-ready; confident and competent, aware of what is expected of them in the professional world, and able to perform to their full potential (Bahrain Polytechnic, 2017). Programmes, qualifications and courses, and the underlying methodology of how they are delivered are developed in consultation with businesses, industries, professions, international education and training institutions to ensure that Bahrain Polytechnic graduates meet the needs of the labour market, thus supplying Bahrain’s economy with a source of highly skilled graduates. This enforces the use of a unique teaching and learning philosophy represented in Problem-based Learning (PBL) (Bahrain Polytechnic, 2017). Therefore, Bahrain Polytechnic need to be very cautious when assessing any RPL application. This paper identifies student mobility and internationalization as important and legitimate issues for both individual institutions and for educational quality assurance bodies. It then focuses on the Bahrain Polytechnic’s approach in acknowledging students prior learning through formal education. Following significant internal consultation, Bahrain Polytechnic has developed a more robust process for awarding credits/ exemptions to students based on formal education in other approved HEI’s.
Highlights
Higher Education globally has been experiencing ‘interesting times’ for the past few decades
Recognition of prior learning can apply to both certified and uncertified learning and it can be achieved in at least three ways; formal education, informal mechanisms such as skills acquired through work experience, and non-formal activities such as attending workshops and seminars
This section lays out the environment in which the Bahrain Polytechnic operates, and covers the decisions made by the Bahrain Polytechnic in developing credible policies and procedures to recognize prior learning which meet the needs and expectations of students, the institution itself, and the various national regulatory bodies
Summary
Higher Education globally has been experiencing ‘interesting times’ for the past few decades. [I] observe the radically changing nature of Higher Education in the UK in the last 20 years of the 20th century...almost every one of the boundaries which gave definition to a university and to students’ experience of it, have been removed. This changing nature is echoed by Sappey (2005), who identifies four key drivers of structural change to Higher Education within an Australian context: marketisation/competitiveness; changes to consumption patterns; commodification of education; and managerialism. 21st-century learners enter Higher Educational Institutions (HEI’s) from a diversity of backgrounds. No longer does an HEI receive students solely from secondary schooling system, but rather their learners are coming from the workplace, from other institutions, from other fields of study and, in an increasingly globalized environment, from other
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