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Unbundling Higher Education: a new site of contestation for curriculum?

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Alan Cliff

Research presentation on unbundling Higher Education and its impacts on curriculum, Leeds University, September 2017

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UNBUNDLING HIGHER EDUCATION: A NEW SITE OF CONTESTATION FOR CURRICULUM, TEACHING AND LEARNING, AND ASSESSMENT? Alan Cliff, Rebecca Swartz, Laura Czerniewicz, Sukaina Walji alan.cliff@uct.ac.za/ rebecca.swartz@uct.ac.za
The Cape Town team Laura Czerniewicz Alan Cliff Rebecca Swartz www.cilt.uct.ac.zaFind us here: Sukaina Walji
The Leeds team Neil Morris Carlo Perrotta Mariya IvanchevaBronwen Swinnerton
Overview of project ● 26 month project, led by Laura Czerniewicz (UCT) and Neil Morris (Leeds) Examines: ● changes in HE leading to ‘unbundling’ of educational provision ● the intersection of increasingly disaggregated curricula and services, the affordances of digital technologies, the growing marketisation of higher education ● the inequalities which characterise both the sector and the contexts in which they are located.
Unbundling Higher Education: a new site of contestation for curriculum?
Research question How are unbundling and marketisation changing the nature of higher education provision in South Africa and England, and what impact will this have on widening access, educational achievement, employability, and the potential for economic development?
Data on which we draw ● 30 interviews with key stakeholders in South African higher education, at 6 public universities and at government bodies/advisory bodies ● Desktop review - mapping of private providers working in this landscape; literature reviews
‘Unbundling’ - towards a definition 1) Lawton et al. (2013): ‘the de-linking of teaching provision from qualifications gained’ 2) Staten (2012): ‘disaggregating the components of a college degree’ 3) Macfarlane (2010): ‘academic work is being subdivided into specialist functions’
‘Unbundling’ - towards a definition For our project (so far): ‘...the process of disaggregating curricula into standalone units often available in flexible online modes, allowing universities to respond to the pressures of widening access, increasing student numbers, distance learners and internationalisation, competition from alternative providers, and technical change…’
Components of university course can be disaggregated and marketised
Staton, M. (2012). Disaggregating the components of a college degree. American Enterprise Institute, Washington, DC, United States. Components of university education Which elements can be most easily unbundled?
Now let’s move to curriculum in HE Essentially, a mental construct which might be represented as an intersecting and dynamic set of knowledge-objects The knowledge-objects might be: Disciplines and their knowledge structures, including knowledge and ‘performance’ of TLA* Embedded social and material contexts, including the ‘real-world’ relations, platforms for engagement, role players *Teaching, learning and assessment
Curriculum, unbundling, digitisation, marketisation A set of intersecting eco-systems that are mutable, contextual, dynamic and responsive and have agency
Cultural-historical Activity Theory (CHAT) A theory of activity systems and their socially-situated inter-relations A useful analytical tool for understanding our project landscape Also the possible ways in which social and material ‘actors’ might respond Vygotsky and Leont’ev; then Cole, Engeström, Roth and Lee
Third- generation Activity Theory Engeström, Y. (2001). Expansive learning at work: Toward an activity theoretical reconceptualization. Journal of Education and Work, 14, 133- 156.
Unbundling Higher Education: a new site of contestation for curriculum?
An illustration Object is teaching Subject is learning Outcome is graduation; ‘successful learning’ Any one process of unbundling, digitisation, marketisation potentially or actually impacts upon choices of tools; rules of engagement; community; division of labour
Further principles (Roth and Lee, 2007) Dialectics (after Marx and Hegel) Networks of activity systems Language, language of learning and literacy Contradictions; contestations; histories The social dimension and collaboration
Example from the early data I don’t anticipate that there would be any savings of staff through the online learning, but I do anticipate that everyone could generate more revenue. So one wouldn’t lose the staff, or have to reduce the staff, but then once you’ve got something good online you can extend it to the population of students that you don’t have on campus because the campus is full, we can’t grow anymore, and you could do that in two ways; one is you could franchise it out to other universities, so I think for us a good market is the African market … And that would require us to have more staff, but that staff, the extra staff would be covered by, by the extra income; and that’ll also improve our brand and our reach. So I haven’t really heard of any models where it replaces people within the same university. I think it does present a threat possibly to other universities … -Vice Chancellor, South African Research-Intensive University
Example from the early data And what I’d also done, which is very important, I’d introduced in each – in each of the faculties and colleges a compulsory online course, which we called a signature course, which was different from – so – so in one college, for example, it was foundational – foundations of – of that particular discipline or set of disciplines. In another it was academic literacies. In another it was about values and ethics, where was can – then we can manage the responses. It was about agreed, you know, so it was very challenging and complicated, but the intention was to teach students the values, you know, so when they graduate, they go out into the world of work, they all become – they all have agency in the kind of nation that we are building. So that already had some tensions because the – many of the students were dependent on the university’s own provision of computer labs and stuff because they didn’t have their own devices and have internet access … - Senior Leader, Higher Education Parastatal
I think the two things to look at with regard to online, and this is the way in which I have approached it, one is access to higher education. At the moment we – you know, even if we wanted to massify higher education, we don’t have the infrastructure in the country to – to accommodate the increased numbers in higher education. Government certainly doesn’t have the money to create even more universities than it’s already done. And the – the fees must fall, you know. There’s a lot of emphasis on government providing financial support to students, those that are in higher education, so it’s not going to be able to expand that pocket of – of resource envelope beyond what it currently has. … So the – the – the online programs is an opportunity to tap into that particular applicant pool. -Deputy Vice-Chancellor, South African Comprehensive University Example from the early data
So it's not, not to say that, that institutions should, I mean that higher education should be commoditised to the, to the nth degree or something like that, but it's about how do you, how are higher education institutions interacting in the, in the economy and how are they interacting within the context in order to create opportunities for funding for, for research, for innovation, for development. And, and that development is not only just about the development of, you know, new, new ideas from a knowledge production perspective but it's also about community development and the development of, of the localities in, in the area and, and how they engage in that. -Senior Leader, Department of Higher Education and Training Example from the early data
The – the – there’s the whole issue of the business schools. They’ve been doing their own thing and it’s the most opaque, you know. I – I don’t think university VCs and deputy vice chancellors know what their business schools are doing. The department, the higher education and training department are – are very concerned about the sort of companies that – that the universities are establishing themselves. So it’s private companies owned by the universities as well as the properly private companies. So they – in – in some fairly recent discussions with – with the department and the universities, they – they were – the department signalled that they were coming up with regulations to – to govern those. -Senior Leader, Higher Education Networking Body Example from the early data

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Unbundling Higher Education: a new site of contestation for curriculum?

  • 1. UNBUNDLING HIGHER EDUCATION: A NEW SITE OF CONTESTATION FOR CURRICULUM, TEACHING AND LEARNING, AND ASSESSMENT? Alan Cliff, Rebecca Swartz, Laura Czerniewicz, Sukaina Walji alan.cliff@uct.ac.za/ rebecca.swartz@uct.ac.za
  • 2. The Cape Town team Laura Czerniewicz Alan Cliff Rebecca Swartz www.cilt.uct.ac.zaFind us here: Sukaina Walji
  • 3. The Leeds team Neil Morris Carlo Perrotta Mariya IvanchevaBronwen Swinnerton
  • 4. Overview of project ● 26 month project, led by Laura Czerniewicz (UCT) and Neil Morris (Leeds) Examines: ● changes in HE leading to ‘unbundling’ of educational provision ● the intersection of increasingly disaggregated curricula and services, the affordances of digital technologies, the growing marketisation of higher education ● the inequalities which characterise both the sector and the contexts in which they are located.
  • 6. Research question How are unbundling and marketisation changing the nature of higher education provision in South Africa and England, and what impact will this have on widening access, educational achievement, employability, and the potential for economic development?
  • 7. Data on which we draw ● 30 interviews with key stakeholders in South African higher education, at 6 public universities and at government bodies/advisory bodies ● Desktop review - mapping of private providers working in this landscape; literature reviews
  • 8. ‘Unbundling’ - towards a definition 1) Lawton et al. (2013): ‘the de-linking of teaching provision from qualifications gained’ 2) Staten (2012): ‘disaggregating the components of a college degree’ 3) Macfarlane (2010): ‘academic work is being subdivided into specialist functions’
  • 9. ‘Unbundling’ - towards a definition For our project (so far): ‘...the process of disaggregating curricula into standalone units often available in flexible online modes, allowing universities to respond to the pressures of widening access, increasing student numbers, distance learners and internationalisation, competition from alternative providers, and technical change…’
  • 10. Components of university course can be disaggregated and marketised
  • 11. Staton, M. (2012). Disaggregating the components of a college degree. American Enterprise Institute, Washington, DC, United States. Components of university education Which elements can be most easily unbundled?
  • 12. Now let’s move to curriculum in HE Essentially, a mental construct which might be represented as an intersecting and dynamic set of knowledge-objects The knowledge-objects might be: Disciplines and their knowledge structures, including knowledge and ‘performance’ of TLA* Embedded social and material contexts, including the ‘real-world’ relations, platforms for engagement, role players *Teaching, learning and assessment
  • 13. Curriculum, unbundling, digitisation, marketisation A set of intersecting eco-systems that are mutable, contextual, dynamic and responsive and have agency
  • 14. Cultural-historical Activity Theory (CHAT) A theory of activity systems and their socially-situated inter-relations A useful analytical tool for understanding our project landscape Also the possible ways in which social and material ‘actors’ might respond Vygotsky and Leont’ev; then Cole, Engeström, Roth and Lee
  • 15. Third- generation Activity Theory Engeström, Y. (2001). Expansive learning at work: Toward an activity theoretical reconceptualization. Journal of Education and Work, 14, 133- 156.
  • 17. An illustration Object is teaching Subject is learning Outcome is graduation; ‘successful learning’ Any one process of unbundling, digitisation, marketisation potentially or actually impacts upon choices of tools; rules of engagement; community; division of labour
  • 18. Further principles (Roth and Lee, 2007) Dialectics (after Marx and Hegel) Networks of activity systems Language, language of learning and literacy Contradictions; contestations; histories The social dimension and collaboration
  • 19. Example from the early data I don’t anticipate that there would be any savings of staff through the online learning, but I do anticipate that everyone could generate more revenue. So one wouldn’t lose the staff, or have to reduce the staff, but then once you’ve got something good online you can extend it to the population of students that you don’t have on campus because the campus is full, we can’t grow anymore, and you could do that in two ways; one is you could franchise it out to other universities, so I think for us a good market is the African market … And that would require us to have more staff, but that staff, the extra staff would be covered by, by the extra income; and that’ll also improve our brand and our reach. So I haven’t really heard of any models where it replaces people within the same university. I think it does present a threat possibly to other universities … -Vice Chancellor, South African Research-Intensive University
  • 20. Example from the early data And what I’d also done, which is very important, I’d introduced in each – in each of the faculties and colleges a compulsory online course, which we called a signature course, which was different from – so – so in one college, for example, it was foundational – foundations of – of that particular discipline or set of disciplines. In another it was academic literacies. In another it was about values and ethics, where was can – then we can manage the responses. It was about agreed, you know, so it was very challenging and complicated, but the intention was to teach students the values, you know, so when they graduate, they go out into the world of work, they all become – they all have agency in the kind of nation that we are building. So that already had some tensions because the – many of the students were dependent on the university’s own provision of computer labs and stuff because they didn’t have their own devices and have internet access … - Senior Leader, Higher Education Parastatal
  • 21. I think the two things to look at with regard to online, and this is the way in which I have approached it, one is access to higher education. At the moment we – you know, even if we wanted to massify higher education, we don’t have the infrastructure in the country to – to accommodate the increased numbers in higher education. Government certainly doesn’t have the money to create even more universities than it’s already done. And the – the fees must fall, you know. There’s a lot of emphasis on government providing financial support to students, those that are in higher education, so it’s not going to be able to expand that pocket of – of resource envelope beyond what it currently has. … So the – the – the online programs is an opportunity to tap into that particular applicant pool. -Deputy Vice-Chancellor, South African Comprehensive University Example from the early data
  • 22. So it's not, not to say that, that institutions should, I mean that higher education should be commoditised to the, to the nth degree or something like that, but it's about how do you, how are higher education institutions interacting in the, in the economy and how are they interacting within the context in order to create opportunities for funding for, for research, for innovation, for development. And, and that development is not only just about the development of, you know, new, new ideas from a knowledge production perspective but it's also about community development and the development of, of the localities in, in the area and, and how they engage in that. -Senior Leader, Department of Higher Education and Training Example from the early data
  • 23. The – the – there’s the whole issue of the business schools. They’ve been doing their own thing and it’s the most opaque, you know. I – I don’t think university VCs and deputy vice chancellors know what their business schools are doing. The department, the higher education and training department are – are very concerned about the sort of companies that – that the universities are establishing themselves. So it’s private companies owned by the universities as well as the properly private companies. So they – in – in some fairly recent discussions with – with the department and the universities, they – they were – the department signalled that they were coming up with regulations to – to govern those. -Senior Leader, Higher Education Networking Body Example from the early data