Curriculum Partnerships Research Articles

More than Half Underemployed: Developing Talent for Meaningful Work

This article examines the problem of underemployment among recent college graduates and proposes strategies for organizations and institutions of higher education to work individually and collaboratively to address this issue. According to recent data, over 55% of 2020 graduates were underemployed within six months due to factors like economic disruption from the pandemic, skills mismatches, unrealistic graduate expectations, and rising education costs. Long-term impacts of underemployment include lower lifetime earnings and wasted talent. The article suggests organizational approaches like internships, clear communication of needs, bridging roles, and mentorship to develop talent and connect graduates to careers. For institutions, recommendations include experiential learning, career education, industry advisory boards, and robust career services. Finally, the article proposes collaborative models such as curriculum partnerships with employers, employer-embedded teaching, shared talent databases, and joint roundtables to fully tackle graduate underemployment through multi-stakeholder cooperation.

Eighteen Years of Joint Master of Health Professions Education Between Geographically Distanced Partners Lessons from a Matured Partnership

Many educational partnerships between institutes never reach the stage of maturity, with students often bearing the costs of such discontinued partnerships. Reasons can be multifold, including a loss of ambitions, finances, or changing personal aspirations of stakeholders. In 2022 a joint curriculum in health professions education between two geographically and culturally distanced institutes reached its 18th anniversary. What can be learned from this particular partnership in terms of deliberate strategic choices, if any, to overcome the challenges identified in the literature? This article applies an instrumental, in-depth case analysis using a theoretical framework of factors that impact the sustainability of educational curriculum partnerships. By doing so, this paper intends to reveal successful strategies and managerial decisions that might be beneficial to those aiming for a sustainable partnership in higher education.

Cultural Considerations in the Formal Process of Simulation Curriculum Adaptation: A Scoping Review.

Transborder curriculum partnerships in health professions education have been increasing in numbers in recent years. These partnerships present unique challenges when transferring curricula from one context to another. It has been noted that cultural differences between institutions, faculty, staff, and learners can have profound effects on collaboration. Given the significant need for context and fidelity (especially relative to cultural considerations) in healthcare simulation education, there are gaps that need to be addressed in the transfer of these curricula. A scoping literature review was conducted examining recently published articles with relevance to simulation curriculum design or adaptation in transborder contexts to determine to what extent cultural elements are considered in the design and adaptation of simulation-based education in transborder curriculum partnerships. This review resulted in 19 studies requiring full-text review. Studies represented every region of the world with both near and distant proximity of partnering parties. From the reviewed studies, 8 categories related to curriculum adaptation were identified. These categories, when compared with the themes present in Campinha-Bacote's model of cultural competency, showed complete overlap with the 5 themes of the model plus an additional theme complementary to the model. This scoping review demonstrates that cultural considerations clearly play a role in the adaptation of simulation curricula in transborder healthcare curricular partnerships, but further research is needed to further define the exact nature of that relationship.

Conceptualizing student voice in teacher-student curriculum partnerships within Iran’s higher education

Conceptualizing student voice in teacher-student curriculum partnerships within Iran’s higher education

Dancing with power in ‘We are the university: Students co-creating change’

Much of the student-staff partnership literature calls for increased collaboration and power sharing among staff and students. Less common are accounts by student partners themselves that take up the challenge of what partnership and power feel like as universities embrace their neoliberal trajectory - and - purport to do so on behalf of students themselves. Especially acute is the conundrum of how partnership initiatives can, and do, reproduce the very power dynamics they set out to transform. We are a group of students and staff working in curriculum partnership together at Western Sydney University. The context of our work together is the 21C project, a university-wide strategy to transform curriculum, teaching, and learning, drawing on ‘partnership pedagogy’. In this paper, we engage in a process of reflexive inquiry to interrogate a new elective unit that many of us are involved in as advocates, co-creators, as students and staff learning together, and as evaluators, called We are the university: Students co-creating change (WATU). To highlight partnership’s intricate power plays, we offer a fictionalised account to reflect our multi-voiced experiences of being involved in WATU. We have come to understand power’s simultaneity in partnership as forms of power over, as permission-giving, as sharing (or partnership), and as the power to act (agency). The account is our story of partnership’s inevitable contradictions - a collaboration that teaches us about the challenges of working together while being cautious of partnership’s transformatory claims.

How Collaborative Project Development Theory Can Be Used to Provide Guidance for International Curriculum Partnerships

In this paper we explore collaboration in the context of the educational services industry (ESI). We look to literature from the communication field to consider ethical strategies and methods for ensuring the validity of the outcomes of collaborative working. Drawing on Collaborative Product Development and conversation theory we devise four principles that can guide the collaborative process within an education-based partnership project. We then use a case study to consider how these principles supported the outcomes of a cross-national partnership project. Finally, we draw on these principles to consider the lessons for project management in education public private partnerships.

Student learning about UK health services in a cross-border curriculum partnership; the London-Cyprus experience.

This article was migrated. The article was marked as recommended. Purpose of the article Cross border partnerships require curricula, faculty and students to negotiate challenges associated with national regulatory frameworks, contexts and cultures. This study investigated student attitude and behaviours when encountering learning about health services in host and home students in the context of problem based learning. Materials and Methods First year graduate entry students' health systems interest and exposure and their perceptions of the dynamics of learning in PBL were investigated via a questionnaire comprising open and closed questions. Results and Conclusions Results showed a difference between home and host students in the ways they learned about home health systems and their attitudes to the value of learning about home and international health systems. There was no difference in the quantity of health service related learning objectives generated. Both groups reported noticing differences between the PBL cases and clinical practice, however, perceptions of the reasons for the differences varied between home and host students. We are interested in the way in which this perception of difference was reported as either a stimulus or a barrier to learning.

The Social Responsibility of Business Regarding Education

In the context of globalization and accelerated digitalization, the corporate social responsibility is a powerful support factor in improving the education and competencies of the current and future workforce. On the one hand, this will bring social and economic benefits to staff in terms of their development and career. On the other hand, a highly educated and skilled workforce is a valuable asset for competitiveness, high productivity and economic growth. In addition, the involvement of the employers in curriculum development and partnerships with NGOs can contribute to higher efficiency of educational systems to the current needs of the modern business organizations. Therefore, this article seeks good examples and solutions of how the corporate social responsibility can be directed to achieving better educational results.

Boundless Curriculum Partnerships

Boundless Curriculum Partnerships

Crossborder curriculum partnerships: medical students\u2019 experiences on critical aspects

BackgroundThe past decade has witnessed an upsurge in medical curriculum partnerships established across national boundaries to offer students at the foreign institution (host) a learning experience comparable to that of students at the exporting institution (home). However, since the learning environments and national healthcare contexts differ greatly between institutions, concerns have been raised in the literature about potential low quality of curriculum delivery, inadequate preparation of students to practice in the host country healthcare setting, and a culture shock for host students having to study a home curriculum.. The experiences and opinions of medical students related to these concerns have not been investigated. This study takes an explorative approach on key challenges faced by host institution students.MethodThree hundred sixty-one host students recruited from 3 partnerships completed a survey about their motives, transition from high school, language, preparedness for practice, future career planning, and general satisfaction. Descriptive statistics of closed-ended items and thematic analysis of open-ended items were performed.ResultsFindings revealed that students generally held positive views of the education they received. Switching to a new language of instruction (English) and learning environment was not perceived as a major obstacle. However, a significant portion of students who as non-nationals did not speak the language of the patient population felt this complicated effective workplace-based learning.ConclusionDespite differences in learning experiences, host students felt the partnership afforded opportunities to acquire unique academic competencies and boost their career. Further adaptation of the home curriculum to the host country healthcare system may be beneficial, without losing sight of medical curriculum partnerships’ potential to offer graduates an international outlook on global healthcare.

Industrial work placement in higher education

For civil engineering undergraduates, short-term industrial work placement provides an invaluable learning experience. Notwithstanding the near-universal endorsement of short-term placement programmes, the resulting experience is rarely articulated through the student voice. This article provides an analysis of 174 questionnaires returned by placement undergraduates studying civil engineering at four higher education institutions in the West of Scotland. The commentary captures industrial placement statistics, employability skill sets and a preliminary semantic interpretation of participants’ testimonies. While the student journey to becoming a professional civil engineer is undoubtedly enhanced by short-term industrial placement, the findings disclose opportunities for university and industry to challenge and affect pedagogical discourse in relation to personal and professional development. The discussion is likely to resonate beyond civil engineering and may serve as a timely reminder of the necessity of periodically revisiting and reinvigorating academia–industry curriculum partnerships.

Connected, attracted, and concerned: A Q study on medical crossborder curriculum partnerships

Introduction: A new form of internationalization has been trending upward in the medical education realm: crossborder medical curriculum partnerships established to deliver the same, or adapted, curriculum to groups of geographically separated students. This study aims to investigate crossborder medical curriculum partnerships by exploring the experiences of teachers at the recipient institution who have a key role in delivering the program.Methods: From four pioneering recipient medical schools, 24 teachers participated in a Q-sort study. Each participant rank-ordered 42 statements about teaching in a crossborder medical curriculum on a scale from −5 (indicating strong disagreement) to +5 (indicating strong agreement). The authors conducted a “by-person” factor analysis to uncover distinct patterns in the ranking of statements, using the statistical results and participants’ comments about their Q sorts to interpret these patterns and translate them into distinct viewpoints.Results: Three viewpoints emerged, reflecting: (1) a feeling of connectedness with the partner institution, trust in the quality of the curriculum, and appreciation of interinstitutional relationships; (2) the partnership’s attractiveness because of the career opportunities it offers; and (3) concerns over the quality of graduates because of doubts about the appropriateness of the didactic model and insufficient attention to local healthcare needs, and over the practical feasibility of such partnerships.Conclusions: The three viewpoints identified revealed a pallet of views on how host teachers might experience their work. It shows the heterogeneous features of this group and seems to counterbalance reports that they are feeling “deprived” from their role as teacher. Two viewpoints featured an appreciation of interinstitutional relationships and of the partnership, especially when perceiving a degree of autonomy. Partners can capitalize on all different viewpoints by deploying procedure and policies to raise the quality of education delivery.

Twelve tips for crossborder curriculum partnerships in medical education

Crossborder curriculum partnerships are a relatively new and fast-growing form of internationalization in which the curriculum that has been developed by one institution (the home institution) crosses borders and is implemented in another institution (the host institution). These partnerships aim to provide comparable learning experiences to the students in both institutions and are driven by a variety of motives, such as strengthening international networks, increasing financial gains, and stimulating research spinoffs. Although popular, crossborder curriculum partnerships are also criticized for their potentially low educational quality, failing to address fundamental differences in teaching and learning between the home and host institutions, and not addressing the educational needs of the host country’s health care system. Our aim is to provide guidance to those considering or engaged in designing, developing, managing, and reviewing a crossborder curriculum partnership or other forms of international educational partnerships in medical education. Drawing from research, personal, and institutional experiences in this area, we listed twelve tips categorized into four themes, which contribute to the establishment of sustainable partnerships that can withstand the aforementioned criticism.

Exporting a Student-Centered Curriculum: A Home Institution's Perspective.

Numerous, mainly Anglo-Saxon, higher education institutions have agreements with foreign providers to deliver their curricula abroad. This trend is gradually making inroads into the medical domain, where foreign institutions undertake to offer their students learning experiences similar to those of the home institution. Not an easy feat, as the national health care contexts differ greatly between institutions. In a bid to export the curriculum, institutions risk compromising their financial resilience and reputation. This article presents an instrumental case study of a home institution’s perspective on the establishment of a cross-border student-centered curriculum partnership. It provides the reader with a practical discourse on dimensions that need to be bridged between home and host contexts, and on new working processes that need to be integrated within the home institution’s existing organizational structure. We describe the advantages and disadvantages based on our experiences with a centralized organizational approach, and advocate for a gradual move toward decentral interfaculty communities of practice.

An exploration of crossborder medical curriculum partnerships: Balancing curriculum equivalence and local adaptation

Context: Worldwide, medical schools have entered into crossborder curriculum partnerships (CCPs) to provide equivalent curricula and learning experiences to groups of geographically separated students. Paradoxically, this process also involves adaptation of curricula to suit local contexts. This study has focused on challenges faced by medical Crossborder curriculum programme directors and strategies they employed to overcome these.Methods: We conducted a qualitative study on six CCPs using document analysis and semi-structured interviews with 13 programme directors from 12 medical schools. Interview transcripts were coded iteratively, followed by cross-case analysis.Results: The challenges faced by CCP programme directors are four-fold, springing from differences in health care systems, legislation and political interference, teaching and learning environments, and partnership. Deliberate strategies, such as intensifying interactions between partners in all academic echelons, can help to overcome these. Partnerships vary in their setup and collaboration strategy.Conclusion: Medical CCPs are challenging though seem feasible. Partnerships with more solid integration of academic operations appear robust in terms of ownership and provide, besides financial, also academic advantages to both institutions. However, more research is needed on the long-term effects on quality of graduates and impact on the host health care system.

Doctor of Nursing Practice Education for Uniformed Service Advanced Practice Nurses: A Model Curriculum and Clinical Partnership

The American Association of Colleges of Nursing asserted the position that the practice doctorate should be the graduate degree for advanced nursing practice preparation. To maintain professional standards for military advanced practice registered nurses (APRN) and remain competitive for high-quality students, the Daniel K. Inouye Graduate School of Nursing at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences transitioned its APRN programs to the Doctor of Nursing Practice degree. This article describes a model graduate curriculum that incorporates clinical partnerships to prepare APRNs for their future roles in the federal health care system. Background, stakeholders, program aims, implementation strategies, curriculum design, accreditation, challenges, and lessons learned are discussed.

Copy but Not Paste

Crossborder curriculum partnerships, entailing the transposition of an entire curriculum and the related degree(s) from “home” to “host” institution, are a rather new phenomenon in internationalization in education. The literature describes successful and unsuccessful partnerships, but critical factors for the success or failure of sustainable partnerships remain to be identified. We conducted a narrative literature review to find such factors. Using an iterative approach, we analyzed 39 articles retrieved from Web of Science, Google Scholar, ERIC, PubMed, and PsycInfo and meeting the inclusion criteria. We developed a framework of 13 factors in four domains: students, teachers, curriculum, and soft and hard project management. Simply copy-pasting a curriculum is generally considered to be destined for failure. To overcome challenges, partners should take preventive and affirmative measures across multiple domains. The findings may provide guidance to those considering or engaged in designing, developing, managing, and reviewing a crossborder partnership.

Designing a curriculum model for the teaching of the Bible in UK Jewish secondary schools: a case study

This paper describes the process of designing a curriculum model for Bible teaching in UK Jewish secondary schools. This model was designed over the period 2008–2010 by a team of curriculum specialists from the Jewish Curriculum Partnership UK in collaboration with a group of teachers from Jewish secondary schools. The paper first outlines the context of UK Jewish secondary schools and then the curriculum context in which this specific model was designed. It then details the model itself and concludes with a discussion of the implementation of the model and associated challenges.

Developing a Blueprint for evidence-based drug prevention in England

Blueprint is a universal multi-component prevention programme involving young people aged 11 to 13. In 2005 Blueprint completed delivery of drug prevention through work with schools, parents and the media in communities in England, reinforced by increased action to restrict the availability of tobacco, alcohol and volatile substances to under-age youth. The programme evaluation includes process, impact, outcome and cost measures. This article describes the formative research and process of planning that formed the development of the Blueprint programme and the evidence base underpinning the approach. The process has established for the first time the systematic integration of research with the framework of the national school curriculum and Drug Strategy delivery partnerships. The completed evaluation in 2007 will be a major opportunity to reassess the role of drug education and prevention in meeting educational needs and as part of national drug and alcohol strategies.

In Defense of Conference Summaries: Widening the Reach of Writing Center Work

The range of outreach projects recounted in recent journal articles, discussions on WCENTER’s electronic forum, and conference presentations indicate that collectively we as writing center professionals have indeed been working to extend the conversation about one-to-one work across our campuses. Writing across the curriculum partnerships with classroom teachers (Gill; Mullin, “Tutoring for Law Students”; Soliday), satellite writing centers in dorms or specific academic departments (“Advice on Satellite Centers”), on-line writing centers (Denny and Livesey), and administrative portfolios reflecting the complex combination of teaching, research, and administration entailed in the work of writing center directors (Olson; Perdue) are all examples of the expanding presence of writing centers at our institutions. Yet if we are to extend the benefits of one-to-one work to teachers, the individuals who most influence the type of writing our students do, we need to find ways of communicating with them directly and regularly. The conference summary—the record of a tutor’s interaction with a student, written up and sent to the instructor upon the student’s written request—offers one of the few ways we have to extend the discussion of one-to-one work beyond the center on a weekly basis. However, this form is not universally endorsed. Some writing center professionals—including those described as “sharers” by Michael Pemberton in a 1995 Writing Lab Newsletter “Ethics” column—perceive these reports as promoting “a unified educational experience for students” and “productive relationships with faculty” (13). Others—including those described by Pemberton as “seclusionists”—see summaries as just another instance of limiting tutors to the role of “service workers” for instructors (Pemberton 13).