Modularisation and Public Policy: A Mixed Blessing
| Author | John Dickens |
| Published date | 01 March 1995 |
| Date | 01 March 1995 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/014473949501500103 |
| Published By | Sage Publications, Inc. |
Teaching Public Administration: Spring
1995,
Vol
xv.
No
1,
pp
32-42
Modularisation
and
Public Policy: A Mixed Blessing
JOHN DICKENS
University
of
Luton
The onward march
of
modularisation appears to be gathering space. Each year more
and more universities are adopting such a structure for the delivery
of
their curricula.
Even established undergraduate courses are succumbing to the current infatuation and
there are rumours that, in. some institutions, the transfonnation is being effected in a
period
of
weeks rather than months following the policy change in a university.
Meanwhile, other universities are taking a more gradual and piecemeal approach across
their institutions; some, for example, insisting only that all new undergraduate
provision
is
to develop within a modular framework. In a recent survey (cited in
HEQC, 1994, P 73) 32%
of
all respondent universities had already gone modular
whilst 59%
of
respondents were planning to do so in the subsequent three years.
Equally, it was recently reported (HEFCE, 1994, P 11) that 'more than 55%
of
higher
education institutions ... are already operating a semester system
or
are plimning to have
such a system in place between 1994-5 and 1996-7'. As a consequence, there is every
reason to suppose that teachers
of
politics and public administration have experienced
or are experiencing varying degrees
of
exposure to modularisation. When the state-of-
the-art report on public policy and administration was published (CNAA, 1992) minor
but significant reference was made to the nascent development
of
modularisation.
Within this in mind, it might be useful to open a dialogue for the exchange
of
ideas
regarding modularisation in terms
of
both policy dynamics and the demands and
practical implications
of
such a structure for the curriculum.
Modularisation is not new, although its popular appeal has only recently come to be
recognised. For example, it is well-established in the USA and there are some higher
education institutions (HEIs) in Britain which have long eschewed traditional course
design and operated modular programmes
of
study, most notably Oxford Brookes
University (formerly Oxford Polytechnic) and the Open University. Oxford Brookes
has operated its modular scheme underpinned by short, fat, provision over three 10
week terms in an academic year for nearly 20 years. The Open University, on the
other hand, operates a long, thin, scheme delivered over a calendar year.
32
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