Curriculum agility in higher education

ABSTRACT

The purpose of this study is two-fold. First, to identify and encapsulate the enablers that can facilitate curriculum agility in higher education and second, to understand the interplay between the factors. Literature review and academic experts helped identify eight factors crucial for driving curriculum agility in higher education. The total interpretive structural modelling (TISM), a widely used method in theory building, was used to develop a hierarchical conceptual framework of the curriculum agility factors. The TISM model helped comprehend the relationship between the factors and the logical reasoning behind the relationship. The cross-impact matrix multiplication applied to classification, also known as MICMAC analysis, was applied to rank the enablers based on their driving power into independent, autonomous, linkage, and dependent zones. The participants for the study included faculty members from higher education institutions in India. A closed-ended questionnaire and scheduled interview helped in gathering data. The TISM model revealed curriculum leader, organisational governance and teacher autonomy as the most crucial factors in driving curriculum agility in higher education. The results of this study would assist the policymakers and management of higher education institutions to understand the critical factors and work around them to add value to the curriculum.

KEYWORDS:

• – agility
• curriculum agility
• higher education
• higher education institutions
• Total Interpretive Structural Modelling
• MICMAC analysis

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Shalini Menon

Shalini Menon is a research scholar at Amrita School of Business, Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham, Coimbatore, India. She holds a Master’s degree in Business Administration from Bharathiyar University, India. Her field of study is Agility in Higher Education. Her research interests include agile systems, sustainability, service operations. She is currently working on agility and sustainability in higher education.

M. Suresh is an Associate Professor at Amrita School of Business, Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham, Coimbatore, India. He holds a PhD in Project Management from Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay, India and Master’s in Industrial Engineering from PSG College of Technology, Coimbatore, India. His research interests include issues related to lean and agile operations and performance management. He has authored several papers in Operations Management. He is also a member of International Society on Multiple Criteria Decision Making.

Dr. R. Raghu Raman is Director, Global Rankings & Accreditation, Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham, Coimbatore, India. His main research focus is in the areas of Diffusion of ICT Innovations in socio-technical systems, eGovernance, Big Data Analytics in Education and Health, Social Network Analysis and Virtual Interactive learning environments.