A global discussion is taking place among Higher Education (HE) stakeholders to strive for HE that does better justice to the needs of the learner and of society. The relevance of study programs is probably the most pressing issue in HE today worldwide, including the countries in South America. In the public eye HE institutions should offer high quality programs that contribute significantly to the welfare of society by preparing graduates well for work and for civic and social engagement. To meet this need, a paradigm shift is required from traditional expert-oriented teaching to student-centred and active learning, based on competences and learning outcomes. Although there is full awareness that this shift is to be made, HE institutions and their academic staff in SA (and beyond) lack capacity, expertise and experience to make this happen. Building on work already done in Europe and in LA, ACE aims to develop effective mechanisms to give student-centred education a serious boost by acting as a catalyzer in 6 South-American countries, involving 13 key universities. ACE covers in each country 1-4 core academic fields, Nursing, Environmental Engineering, Education and History, representing as many HE sectors. At the heart of the project are 20 local working groups (WGs) consisting of 5 academics and of 5 student representatives each. The broad involvement of (local) staff and students is a unique feature. The WGs are all represented in transnational Subject Area Groups. Its members will be empowered to train their local WGs to reform their own programs. For this purpose, subject area qualifications frameworks will be made, based on (updated) meta-profiles developed in earlier LA projects. These will be complemented with in-depth training at 7 transnational meetings. As a result, ACE will result in 20 well informed learning communities that have reformed their programs and be equipped to assist other programs to make the reforms so urgently needed.
To show how higher education sector can be modernised through making outcomes-based student-centred approach work in practice, and through creating human, reference and didactic resources necessary to support higher education institutions in South America and beyond in the endeavour of shifting from teacher- and input-centred higher education to student- and outcome-centred higher education (SCHE) that can meet the needs of the learners and the society.
ACE sought to address the problem of the insufficient alignment between the present achievements/outcomes of HE programmes and the identified societal needs in South America. Lack of real implementation of the outcome-based student-centred approach was identified as a key hindrance on the way of achieving HE that does more justice to the needs of the learner and of society. ACE was developed to address this need through its 3 lines of work and its distinct methodological approach.
<< Background >> ACE sought to address the problem of the insufficient alignment between the present achievements/outcomes of HE programmes and the identified societal needs in South America. Lack of real implementation of the outcome-based student-centred approach was identified as a key hindrance on the way of achieving HE that does more justice to the needs of the learner and of society. ACE was developed to address this need through its 3 lines of work and its distinct methodological approach. << Objectives >> To show how higher education sector can be modernised through making outcomes-based student-centred approach work in practice, and through creating human, reference and didactic resources necessary to support higher education institutions in South America and beyond in the endeavour of shifting from teacher- and input-centred higher education to student- and outcome-centred higher education (SCHE) that can meet the needs of the learners and the society. << Implementation >> Teams of students & academics from 4 subject areas - Education, Environmental Studies, History, & Nursing - worked together to:1) Create International Reference Points to Guide & Inspire Programme Revision & Enhancement Processes2) Engage Students & Staff in Jointly Building Student-Centred Higher Education (SCHE) through conducting sessions to allow participants experience SC approach & learn about different aspects of SCHE (6 'cycles' of sessions)3) Develop Model Student-Centred Curricula << Results >> 1) 4 Regional Subject-Specific Qualifications Reference Frameworks2) 4 Repositories of Good Practices in Student-Centred Teaching, Learning & Assessment3) 120+ sessions on Student-Centred Higher Education (SCHE) designed & facilitated4) 470+ champions of SCHE trained in project meetings (100+ students & 370+ academics)5) 1000+ persons trained locally6) Resources to run sessions on key aspects of SCHE7) Model Student-Centred Curricula8) Videos articulating impact9) Final academic report