Benefits and Importance of a Higher Education Management Program - Essay Example

? Is There A Trade-Off Between Innovation And Regulating Quality In Higher Education? If So, What Is The Appropriate Way To Balance These Competing Forces? Introduction The higher educational administration program is concentrated on the study as well as development policies regarding social diversity, leadership, change, ethics and values through the educational curriculum. It is a combination of certain theories and practices that helps students to develop capabilities which facilitate them in order to manage the complex situation of present education procedures and policies. This program intends to focus on developing skilled educators, academic practitioners and administrator policy analysts. During this educational program, students are capable to explore their own selected area and effectively focus on four thematic areas such as policy, change, leadership and community diversity (The Trustees of Boston College, 2012). The department of ‘Educational Leadership and Higher Education’ provides Master’s as well as Doctoral programs for the applying students. The core objective of this department is to provide education to the students for leadership position. Moreover, this department also provides graduate level professional as well as certification programs. In this regard, the professional program provides education to the individuals regarding administrative position at the college as well as university level. While on the other hand, certification program in educational leadership provides education to the students regarding the managerial position (Saint Louis University, 2012). ‘Trade-Off’ is considered as a situation that implies foregoing on quality of something in return of gaining another quality. The basis objective of this paper is to demine the trade-off between innovation and regulating quality in higher education. Trade-Off between Innovation and Regulating Quality in Higher Education The term ‘innovation’ is considered as an initiation related to new ideas, thoughts, devices or methods. In the present context, higher education facilities are continuously evolving across the globe. In terms of innovation regarding educational curriculum activities are concerned, an instance can be witnessed of Western Governors University at the United Kingdom which considerably is focusing on bring about certain innovation in their educational system. Contextually, innovation regarding curriculum activities and development program assists this university to meet the educational standards at higher level. They expected that by initiation of innovation, they would facilitate effective educational facilities and also attract a wide number of students (Trane, 2012). At present, a majority of post graduate educational institutions and higher educational level universities are bringing about a lot of innovative changes regarding educational system. By taking into consideration regarding the Australian higher education system, certain arguments were presented by the Bradley Review of Higher Education in the year 2008. This educational standard reviewing authority demonstrated certain obvious changes about the existing educational systems such as setting of easy access regarding online education, certain regulatory aspects of educational procedures along with enhancing the quality of academic lectures. Since the year 1970, Australian government has encouraged several universities to critically evaluate their educational performance. In the year 1980, this evaluation was considerably accepted in order to improve the efficiency as well as effectiveness of educational program. In the last few decades, there has been a considerable turmoil regarding bringing in innovative changes in the education system which was quite difficult to carry out for the various universities (Varis, 2007). A number of colleges and universities in recent times are facing a diverse set of challenges in terms of ensuring quality of higher education along with incorporating sustained regulation. These challenges relate in terms of the requirement of effective system of learning environment such as comfortable as well as reliable amenities. In this similar context, infrastructure of universities and colleges plays a significant role for providing superior education facilities to the students. In order to facilitate better quality of education, majority of the global universities have been brining in certain innovations in the education system such as Wi-Fi enabled classrooms with sustainable environmental structure, safe as well as productive laboratories, better athletics amenities, libraries and museums among others. In this regard, due to the advancement of technology, a number of the universities and colleges provide online educational training facilities to the students where they offer various study materials through internet sources. Apart from these, they also provide lectures through projectors which might at times be uncomfortable for the students to understand their study materials. In this similar context, it is necessary to view that ‘Information Technology (IT)’ offers a new way regarding the easy access of information through effective utilization of which students obtain more in-depth information from e-books apart from provided study materials. Contrarily, it can be argued that all these overall changes might hamper existing traditional education system because when a professor offers lecture through a projector it creates considerable differences as compared to hand-written lecture materials. Through hand- written lectures students obtain clear understanding of diagrams, tables and graphs among others. Subsequently, in terms of online study materials students are not able to interact with each other as well as with the teachers inside the classroom as they are able to do in traditional teaching methods. All these overall aspect create an imbalanced situation within the existing educational system. However, managements of these universities also imply that flexibility is also necessary for the initiation of successful innovation within the higher education. In this similar context, it has been also observed that to mitigate the burden of tuition, these innovative changes are also quite necessary for the universities and colleges. Nevertheless, in order to bring excellent innovation driven facilities, most of the universities incur huge amount of finances which is ultimately creating an impact upon the students. Contextually, for this reason, institutional costs go up where students have to majority of the times bear substantial expenses at the time of admission as well as monthly fees (Australian Government, 2012). In this similar context, the American Association of State Colleges and Universities depicted that these types of innovative changes are quite essential for the students in order to facilitate superior quality of educational programs. Through these changes, it is beneficial for the students who are subsequently doing jobs along with studying through higher educational programs. It is also necessary for the students who are applying for distance education courses. These students obtain online study materials by sitting at their homes or workplaces. Moreover, due to the effects of globalization, these innovation driven changes are increasingly expanding throughout the world. In order to compete with each other and provide better education facilities majority of the universities and colleges are bringing about as well as adopting these changes in an efficient manner (Beerkens, 2010). By taking into consideration the existing educational system, it is also quite essential to observe that these innovation driven transformations are at times hampering sustainable educational environment where students are not able to obtain appropriate knowledge which is required for their future development. Contextually, at present, majority of the students also like to obtain technological based educational system where they are not focusing considerably on the knowledge based educational system. In this regard, quality regulation is one of the significant elements for developing the policies of higher education where the governments effectively encourage the management of the institutions in order to meet and fulfill the required educational objectives of the nation. In this standpoint, it is quite essential to observe that these innovations at times create detrimental impact upon the quality of the educational system in terms of knowledge, educational lecture process and lack of classroom interactions. In order to compete against each other several educational institutions are not able to uphold quality based educational system. In this regard, universities are capable to provide ample of resources as well as facilities to the students but on the other hand they are not able to facilitate quality assurance related to education to the students. At times, these universities are not appropriately being able to maintain equilibrium between innovation-driven changes as have been incorporated in the academic activities and regulating quality in higher educational system (Henard & Ringuet, 2012). Remedial Measures for Maintaining Balance between Innovation and Regulating Quality of Higher Education At present, due to globalization as well as huge competition, it is necessary for the educational institutes to bring in innovative changes in order to survive within this steadfast environment. Subsequently, it is also quite essential for these institutions to concentrate upon the quality of the education which should not get hampered during the process of bringing in these innovations. Therefore, certain remedial measures should be taken by these universities and colleges in order to ensure an effective balance between brining in innovative changes and ascertaining quality assurance of education (European University Association, 2007). Universities should implement superior quality of teaching methods where the professors and lecturers must provide quality lectures apart from the online study materials. Lecturers as well as professors should maintain an educational pattern in order to provide necessary learning outcomes to the students. Contextually, for maintaining adequate quality, educational institutes should make a policy where it is mandatory for every student to attend regular classes apart from distance education students. Moreover, educational institutes should maintain certain quality assurance guidelines in order to deliver systematic teaching approach to the students. These institutes should obtain certain teaching mechanisms. In various educational institutes, professors ought to be focused towards ensuring that lecture materials should be different from the online study sources which would help the students to derive in-depth information regarding subject matter. Furthermore, these institutes should also focus on the fact that the doubts of the students regarding the subject matter should be clarified by the professors inside the classroom. This systematic way would help to enhance the interaction as well as communication between the students and the lecturers which is quite fruitful for the future development of the universities as well as the applying students (White & Glickman, 2007). According to present context of educational system, both private as well as public institutes are existing into the market. They implement different educational systems as well as provide diverse teaching methods. Contextually, it has been observed that private educational systems are keener on bringing in and adopting several innovative changes in order to maintain the standard of the provided level of teaching than the public institutes. Majority of the public institutes follow and implement traditional teaching methods where only a few of them adopt innovation driven changes. They are not able to deliver additional study materials apart from the prescribed sources. In this similar context, it is quite essential for both divisions of the institutes to uphold an appropriate equilibrium between innovation and quality assurance aspects which are among the integral parts of education system. Both the aspects i.e. innovative educational system and quality assurance are required for the future development of the students. In this regard, it is quite necessary for the institutional decision-making bodies to implement accurate plans so that they are able to divulge bright futures for the modern day students, who are increasingly observed to be career oriented. Moreover, this decision making bodies should implement quality teaching initiative method as a nature and function of the educational system. Through this method, these universities can enhance the teaching performance along with initiating sustained innovations in the educational systems. This initiative can be fruitful for maintaining the quality learning environment which enables to increase the virtue of teamwork among the students along with helping them to interact with the professors. Contextually, quality teaching is considered as a significant factor which is quite essential for the future development of the students as well as universities. Moreover, this initiative also facilitates to develop an effective teaching structure by which educational institutes can formalize strategies regarding teaching process in an efficient manner. Through this initiative, private as well as public educational institutes can develop a balanced situation between the innovation driven changes and regulating quality of higher education (Greenberg, 2008). Conclusion and Recommendations The final thought that emerges from the overall discussion is that both innovation and quality of higher education are essential aspects for the future development of the students as well as the educational institutes. These two aspects play significant roles for educational institutes for ensuring their sustainability within the competitive market where different colleges are attempting to show their credentials in terms of providing quality innovative education to the students. At present context, there are considerable challenges that are being faced by higher educational institutes in terms of ascertaining quality standard education. In order to tackle these situations, it is necessary for these institutions to adopt and to bring innovative changes within their education amenities. It is also essential for these institutions to concentrate upon the quality assurance facet of the provided education along with innovation. Through these innovation driven changes, majority of the universities and colleges are able to provide ample of additional online study materials to the students within a less period of time. Subsequently, it is also necessary for the higher educational universities to provide accurate study information through the lectures and also enhance the interaction between the students and the professors inside the classrooms. From the overall discussion, it is recommended that every university both public as well as private should maintain an accurate equilibrium to reduce the apparent trade-off between innovation and regulating quality of higher education. Both the aspects are quite essential for the future development of the students and universities’ educational standards. Apart from online communication and study materials, universities should implement quality teaching based initiatives in order to deliver in-depth knowledge to the students. References Australian Government. (2012). Improving quality in Australian higher education. Retrieved from http://www.innovation.gov.au/HigherEducation/Quality/ImprovingQualityInAustralianHigherEducation/Pages/default.aspx Beerkens, M. (2010). Autonomy and control in higher education quality regulation: insights from recent changes in academic quality assurance. Retrieved from http://soc.kuleuven.be/io/egpa/org/2011Roem/papers/paper%20Beerkens.pdf European University Association. (2007). Embedding quality culture in higher education. Retrieved from http://www.eua.be/Libraries/EQAF_2010/EUA_QA_Forum_publication_1.sflb.ashx Greenberg, M. (2008). Council for higher education accreditation. Retrieved from http://www.chea.org/About/NAF/Greenberg.pdf Henard, F., & Ringuet, S. L. (2012). The path to quality teaching in higher education. Retrieved from http://www.oecd.org/edu/imhe/44150246.pdf Saint Louis University. (2012). Educational leadership & higher education home. Retrieved from http://www.slu.edu/x10649.xml Trane. (2012). Innovation for higher education: raising performance across college and university campuses. Retrieved from http://www.trane.com/highereducation/pdfs/EDU-SLB025-EN_eLIB2.pdf The Trustees of Boston College. (2012). Educational leadership and higher education. Retrieved from http://www.bc.edu/content/bc/schools/lsoe/academics/departments/eahe.html Varis, T. (2007). New technologies and innovation in higher education and regional development. Retrieved from http://www.uoc.edu/rusc/4/2/dt/eng/varis.pdf White, S. C. & Glickman, T. S. (2007). Innovation in higher education: implications for the future. Retrieved from http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/communia2010/sites/communia2010/images/White_Glickman_2007_Innovation_in_Higher_Education-_Implications_for_the_Future.pdf Read More