Current global drivers have challenged higher education and increased institution-wide top-down managed reforms, including curriculum reforms. As academics are vital in curriculum development, listening to their voices is essential for understanding actors' experiences of curriculum change processes in top-down managed reforms. The present study…

University-based curriculum development often involves adding new content. This 'just add' approach has also been applied to integrating the UN SDGs into curricula, reducing them to a checklist rather than embracing their holistic and transformative aims. This is particularly concerning for SDG 4 and SDG 4.7, which require deep, cross-cutting…

Purpose: This paper aims to present a case study on how the strong relationships with multiple stakeholder groups can benefit educational programs through the curriculum redesign process by using the experience of Marshall University and Intuit. Design/methodology/approach: This paper highlights how Marshall's faculty used Intuit's Design Thinking…

Institution-wide curriculum change is a costly, time-intensive and politically fraught undertaking. It is a challenge identifying who has responsibility for the curriculum and who is empowered to change it. The unbundling of the traditional tri-partite academic role of teaching, research and service leaves a gap of who in those communities decides…

This article critically engages with the discipline of African musics in the academy. It examines the process of curriculum transformation of the African music section at the South African College of Music, University of Cape Town since 2005 as an emergent curriculum model for an integrated approach to the teaching of African musics at…

This article explores initiatives to decolonise the curriculum via two specific disciplines, namely Economics and Politics, both of which have tended to marginalise the study of race, empire, and colonialism and whose canonical thinkers are overwhelming white. By providing the first comparative analysis of decolonising initiatives in these…

Universities should increasingly collaborate with industries and international counterparts to meet the needs of students, businesses and other stakeholders. However, the literature has not provided a comprehensive response to these aspects of curriculum development. This study has two objectives: to propose a method of curriculum content…

Curriculum has become a core element of universities' competitive positioning, internationally and nationally. This paper presents a longitudinal analysis of policy processes and outcomes associated with 'radical' university curriculum reforms that resulted in divergence from institutions' own historical patterns and national conventions and…

This study explores the agency of academics and the structures that enable or impede agency in curriculum change. The study was conducted at a research university that experienced curriculum change in two waves: the first on a departmental level, and the second as a university-wide curriculum change. Interviews were conducted with the same…

Educational developers play a critical role as change agents and facilitators of curriculum development initiatives. This reflection explores factors that enable and limit curriculum development initiatives as experienced by a group of educational developers working in different university contexts in Canada. By highlighting aspects of our…

In the past seven years, student-led decolonisation movements have taken root in UK universities. Decolonising the university is an intellectual project, asking critical questions about the content of curricula, disciplinary canons and pedagogical approaches. It is simultaneously a material one, challenging the colonial legacies that manifest in…

This article explores how critical making - or a combination of critical thinking and making - could enhance and future-proof technical and vocational education and training (TVET). The article reports from a series of multi-stakeholder participatory workshops with educators, caretakers, pupils, and makers. The workshops themselves represent an…

The aim of the paper is to critically examine the practices of teaching and learning for the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in the context of higher education institutions (HEIs) in South Korea (Korea). With the use of a case study, this paper offers a close examination of the practices carried out at Seoul National University and Kyung Hee…

In higher engineering education, students' learning outcomes are typically measured via tests and examinations. In that way, so it is claimed, students have reached the learning goals intended by the teachers. However, students' learning experiences and perceived learning gains remain unclear. To gain insights into their perceived learning gains,…

This study examines academic staff's perceptions of a university-wide, top-down curriculum reform in terms of the management of the reform, the support provided by the university's administration, and the utilisation of the university's guidelines. Differences between faculties are also scrutinised. The study was conducted at a multidisciplinary…