Blogs:

In our higher education system, one of the basic student progress measurement units is credit hour. A basis for federal student aid and the basic structural unit of most courses at the college level, credit hours inform us of the graduation requirements, teaching load establishment and various other vital aspects of administration throughout the country.

In spite of its importance, credit hours remained undefined until 2010. It was in this year that our higher education department defined credit hour as something that can be verified through student achievement and something associated with amount of work related to learning outcome of students.

Today however, there is a predominant sense of dissatisfaction with this measuring system. Credit hours according to many measures not what the student has learnt but only the time they have spent in classrooms.

Most institutions in our country do not trust credits of students earned elsewhere. This makes it clear to us that there is no way we can place accurate values on credits earned. The situation is all the more sad because each student has gone through gruelling credit hours and taxpayers have paid a huge price for these hours.

Most employers today do not offer permanent employment to graduates even if they are from reputed institutions.  Graduates have to necessarily go through a period of unpaid internship before they are accepted into a regular job.

The reason for this is clear. The number of credit hours does not necessarily translate to the level of knowledge and skills acquired by the student. There is no clear indication of what the student has learnt in order to equip him for the job as you can only find grades and courses done by them in the college transcripts.

There is increased advocacy by education experts today to navigate away from measuring student achievement in terms of credit hours and using demonstrations of competence instead. If this could be achieved, it would bring about a transformative change in our education system.

One of the classic examples is the courses approved by our education department recently at the South New Hampshire University’s business administration associate degree where credit hours are not used to assess and deliver programs.

Programs are typically offered by universities and colleges on the basis of courses that are likely to prepare students and equip them with necessary job skills. South New Hampshire University intentionally works in conjunction with employers asking for details about the skills they specifically require in students.

This university has identified at least 120 competencies that students can be trained in. Rather than measuring these competencies through the number of credits earned, this university focuses on demonstrating proficiency through rigorous assessments. This is an excellent way to ensure that each and every student coming out of the associate program offered by this university are knowledgeable in the area designated by the degree.

Employers can confidently hire students who pass out on the basis of these competency based approach.  Graduates passing out from this model should be able to directly get into paid jobs rather than spending months as an unpaid intern trying hard to prove his or her skills.