Understanding Curriculum in Higher Education

This book provides a critical insight into how, why, in what ways and by whom, the undergraduate curriculum in the United Kingdom is being shaped and determined. HE has expanded and diversified rapidly, becoming increasingly important to a growing number of stakeholders.The specific areas explored in this study focus on the conceptualisations of curriculum; forces shaping the form and character of the HE curriculum; the purposes of an undergraduate degree and notions of graduateness; philosophical approaches to HE curricula and the factors shaping HE professionals' views. A new and alternative curriculum philosophy (socially critical vocationalism) is proposed that integrates a socially critical approach with that of critical vocationalism.Recommendations are made to raise the prominence and level of debate regarding the HE curriculum, to develop a scholarship of curriculum and to promote a greater theoretical understanding of curriculum within the HE community.