T The education landscape has shifted, leading to more types of learning than ever before, from conventional, in-person modes to online and hybrid offerings. Simultaneously, global developments dictate the reorientation of existing educational structures more than ever and the creation of new ones, in response to the new challenges facing students. People want and need to learn in different ways and higher education institutions must meet this demand to give learners what they want, when they want it. To fill this gap and create a new institutional model for higher education, I have proposed the development of a Global Degree initiative. The idea was first published by the United Nations’ UN Chronicle and has since led to the establishment of the Global Degree Foundation – an international NGO based within the Hague Humanity Hub in the Netherlands. At the core of the initiative is this mission statement: “One world, one degree, limitless capabilities”. The concept explained The Global Degree initiative derives from the need to make learning more targeted, flexible, updated and applicable. Its methodology is based on a system of international academic credit (IAC) and can accommodate lifelong learning and continuous education programmes. The aim is for it to work in parallel to the conventional degrees offered
by universities around the globe, rather than to replace existing higher education structures. Participating institutions sign an international academic treaty and adopt the aforementioned IAC system in conjunction with those that they already use. This would allow them to award students a global degree through the initiative without abolishing their traditional degree- awarding powers. Where possible, the global degrees awarded should hold the same academic and professional rights as conventional ones in the country of the awarding institution. However, global degrees will be distinguished from an institution’s conventional degrees with an additional logo and watermark. The process for studying under the initiative’s IAC system resembles that of the European Credit Transfer and Accumulation System (ECTS), for example, with the distinct difference that the location, time, learning mode and institution are placed on a different layer, where they are designed to provide opportunities for flexible learning and continuing education processes, rather than to constitute constraints. More specifically, the initiative revolves around an ‘extensive hybrid’ higher education methodology, in which each student builds
their own degree with freedom over the mode of attendance (full time, part time, distance learning), the method of studying (conventionally, virtual or hybrid), the location of the university and even the language of tuition. Students are then awarded a global degree by any of the institutions that participate in the initiative. Additionally, they will be able to build further degrees and acquire new knowledge in the future based on the IACs they have already attained. A civil engineer, for instance, could receive a global degree and, 15 years later, they could return to university and study to be an architect using the relevant IACs accumulated in the past as an engineering student, plus those that specialise in the requirements for architecture. In this way, continuous education is enhanced and the learning process never stops.
28 Business Impact • ISSUE 4 • 2023
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