Inventive Higher Education: a Blending Passage

Abstract

The massification of education has led to the perception in some disciplines that an undergraduate degree no longer provides sufficient competitive advantage in employment. While undergraduate degrees deliver sufficient professional and expertise substance for entry level positions, ultimately it is the postgraduate qualification which sets students apart and in turn assists with rapid career advancement. In ensuring that graduate students exceed the desired entry level of professional skills, the education institution needs to provide a linking passage between undergraduate and postgraduates studies. This blending passage offers a significant opportunity for students to further develop their overall expertise and skill set. Moreover, this blending passage needs to closely align with the specific professional requirements together with the potential for the graduate to seek possible career progression and advancements. Accordingly, postgraduate studies need to align with these specific professional requirements. The blending passage is an innovative approach which maximizes non-traditional learning and provides incentives to further augment the student’s career. This rapprochement will be aligned with the relevant professional bodies that will also carefully consider the students’ professional competencies. This paper will investigate three prominent Australian universities and their Engineering undergraduates’ belief in the importance of further education and their desire to further develop their specialist expertise through postgraduate study. Minitab will be utilized as a statistical tool to analyze survey data and the findings and their implications for the provision of a blended passage to postgraduate study will be discussed.