Challenges and opportunities for implementing Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL) Policy in higher education
Date
2006
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Abstract
This thesis explores the responses of higher education to the national imperative to implement Recognition of Prior Learning. It makes use of a mixed methods mode of research to explore this phenomenon at three sites of higher education delivery in KwaZulu-Natal. The research investigates how these three institutions have responded to the imperative at an institutional level, in terms of policy development, organisational structures and philosophical approach. It also looks at academic staff perceptions of RPL policy and implementation and its successfulness in terms of the integration of RPL into the curriculum, the capacity of the curriculum to facilitate the assessment of RPL and the extent to which it has been implemented within the higher education system. It identifies the articulation of national policy on RPL as one of the factors that impacts on successful implementation. In so doing, barriers to the successful implementation of RPL are also identified and explored. These barriers include epistemological, material and systemic barriers. However, it also seeks to elicit the benefits that higher education sees in implementing RPL, both in terms of fulfilling the goals of higher education and in terms of the benefits for the national economic imperatives and the skills development initiative. Ultimately, the research attempts to establish the extent to which RPL has been institutionalised within the institutions in terms of a set of indicators as identified by the researcher.
Description
Submitted in partial fulfillment for the requirements of the Degree of Doctor of Education in the Department of Educational Psychology in the Faculty of Education at the University of Zululand, 2006.
Keywords
Competency-based education--South Africa--KwaZulu-Natal, Universities and colleges--Accreditation--South Africa --KwaZulu-Natal, Recognition of Prior Learning