Raquel LM Sukhu Peter C Thomas 1 st National Conference on Quality Assurance in Higher Education held by The Accredi

1. The Role of Articulation Agreements in Creating Seamless Education in the Higher Education Sector Raquel LM Sukhu Peter C Thomas 1st National Conference on Quality Assurance in Higher Education held by The Accreditation Council of Trinidad and Tobago November 17 & 18, 2011

2. “Articulation agreements are the bridge to seamless education through lifelong learning” (Josey, 2009)

3. Define seamlessness in education • Identify strategies to achieve seamlessness • Examine articulation agreements as a strategy within HE • Highlight key issues, benefits and challenges • Review best practices Objectives

4. Seamlessness in education

5. Strategies towards Seamlessness

6. “generally understood to mean the institutional policies or other structures that are implemented to encourage, facilitate and monitor the student transfer process” • “refers to the mechanisms that enable student mobility within and among the institutions that comprise the tertiary system” Articulation

7. “the process of coordinating curricula at different levels of education in order to foster the efficiency and effectiveness of the educational process” which is “used as a vehicle to encourage collaboration between educational institutions” Articulation

8. “Through articulation, credentials from one institution are recognised by another, allowing students to attain advanced standing in a new post secondary programme” Articulation

9. “Articulation is closely linked to the concept of ‘transfer’ – “the process of moving a student’s credits across different institutions” • Numerators of the transfer rate tend to be focused on student transfer, and not transfer of credits Articulation

10. The intention of articulation policies (in the US context) is not to improve transfer rates… it is to prevent the loss of credits when students transfer. Articulation

11. “Student movement is multi-directional: • Vertical– • upwards or • downwards (reverse) • Lateral– between similar institutions • Swirlers– frequently alternating between two- and four-year institutions” Articulation

12. Articulation Agreements

13. Articulating in Trinidad & Tobago

14. Differentiation and diversification • The binary divide • Drift (academic; vocational) • Ensuring mobility, inclusive of swirlers and reverse articulation Key Issues

15. Benefits of High Articulation

16. Benefits of High Articulation

17. Benefits of High Articulation

18. Benefits of High Articulation

19. Benefits of High Articulation

20. Seven Guiding Principles • Parity among institutions • Parity of students • Faculty have primary responsibility for crafting agreements • Accommodate students’ transfer without a minimum of associate degree Best Practice

21. Seven Guiding Principles • Agreements in specific programme majors as well as transfer of programme major courses • Both public and private institutions should participate • Data-driven evaluation of performance of agreements Best Practice

22. The articulation agreement is a key mechanism upon which the development of a seamless HE system in Trinidad & Tobago is dependent and as participants in the HE system we must begin to critically evaluate the ways in which we build and employ them. In conclusion…

23. Differentiated and diversified HE systems with insufficient articulation will, at best, be fragmented systems, far from seamless. In conclusion…

24. Thank you!