Curriculum coherence when subject-specific standards are absent: a case study using coursework-based master of finance programs at Australian universities

• Published in: Studies in higher education (Dorchester-on-Thames) Vol. 43; no. 7; pp. 1135 - 1147
• Main Author: Imam, Tasadduq
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Abingdon Routledge 03.07.2018; Taylor & Francis Ltd
• Subjects: Academic disciplines; Academic standards; Business Administration Education; Case Studies; Coherence; Creativity; Curricula; curriculum coherence; Curriculum Development; curriculum standardisation; Employability; Employment Potential; Finance; Finance Occupations; Foreign Countries; graduate employability; Graduate studies; Higher education; Ignorance; Interdisciplinary Approach; Loss of control; Masters Programs; multi-disciplinary curriculum; Postgraduate finance curriculum; Professional knowledge; Qualitative Research; Universities; Australia
• ISSN: 0307-5079; 1470-174X
• DOI: 10.1080/03075079.2016.1225710

The standardisation of a curriculum is a contentious issue, with critics complaining it leads to a loss of control and creativity. What is less clear, however, is how the lack of standardisation impacts a discipline's curriculum. This article, taking the coursework-based Master of Finance programs at Australian universities as the case study, demonstrates that lack of standardisation results in graduates with non-uniform employability, ignorance of essential professional knowledge and the incorporation of non-integrated non-discipline subjects. Further, such lack of standards causes high disparity in the structures of the programs - an issue outlined in this article through a proposed similarity metric. Overall, this article calls for subject-specific standards to overcome these issues.