Studies have explored the relationship between travelling non-linear post-secondary (PSE) pathways and student achievement in multiple jurisdictions. This research aims to overcome some of the major challenges faced by scholars in this area by leveraging a new administrative linkage in Ontario, Canada containing detailed information on students'…

Volume is the dominant metaphor underlying the European Credit Transfer and Accumulation System (ECTS). Credits are used to 'express the volume of learning based on the defined learning outcomes and their associated workload', with the latter based on volume of student effort. But the convenience of volume can leave the first part overlooked, i.e.…

Taking the European Credit and Transfer System as its departure point, this article describes the (mis)fortunes of the figure of the independent learner. This figure is conceptualized by analyzing the expectations of the European learning space that is enacted in discourses, instruments and practices. The independent learner is a…

Digitalization in combination with the shortage of skilled workers is a significant challenge that has to be faced. Especially the IT sector is characterized by agile and complex developments. In this context, academic further training of IT specialists is crucial to meet the requirements of the IT labor market. The University of Applied Science…

This note seeks to look back at the development and implementation process of the European Credit System for Vocational Education and Training (ECVET). It takes stock of its main achievements and how they are taken forward in the 2020 Council Recommendation on vocational education and training (VET) for sustainable competitiveness, social fairness…

The development of cost-efficient pathways is a topic of increasing political and scholarly interest across many North American jurisdictions. It has been suggested that 'seamless' transfer pathways can provide financial savings to both students and taxpayers. However, such claims are typically based on hypothetical cost calculations, as opposed…

This is a culmination of three related studies of how students make choices within binary systems of post-secondary education: school to college or university, college to university, and college to college to university. The predecessor study investigated how high school students who had been offered admission to a college and a university chose…

International assessment of academic documents by post-secondary institutions and other bodies represents a complex field guided by quality assurance frameworks, formal conventions and best practice. This research study seeks to illuminate this complexity by examining current practices, constraints, perspectives, and possibilities for transfer and…

One of the key steps when developing pathways between baccalaureate and diploma programs is comparing learning goals between the programs. This paper presents application of a seven-dimensional framework (cognitive process, transferability, depth of analysis, interdependence, question novelty, scaffolding and communication) to analyze the implicit…

Since the end of apartheid, South African leaders have been working to transform all aspects of the racialized society into a nonracialized, nonsexist democratic state, including postsecondary education. This chapter examines the changing South African collegiate context focusing on access, persistence, affordability, accreditation, transfer, and…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to explore not only the academic measures such as grade point average of success of college-to-university transfer programs (Pathway Programs), but also the social-cultural facilitators and barriers throughout the students' Pathway experience. Design/methodology/approach: The experience of students and…

"Advising" consists of those activities and tasks that result in providing information to students. British Columbia's (BC) post-secondary education has evolved over the past number of years and student advising has changed along with it. Post-secondary institutions are currently challenged to increase student engagement, improve…

This chapter describes the role of career decision-making self-efficacy, academic satisfaction, and institutional support in predicting Korean students' intent to persist in the Academic Credit Bank System.

Currently, there is great interest across Ontario in the expansion of pathway programs between colleges and universities. Through strategic partnerships, two Ontario-based postsecondary institutions (a college and a university) have developed innovative and effective pathway programs that facilitate the transition of students between institutions…

This qualitative investigation of higher education institutional development addresses new universities that were former community colleges in the provinces of British Columbia and Alberta. Stemming from an original study conducted nearly two decades earlier, this investigation's data were collected from the same institutions and from similar…