This article is written to inspire curriculum developers to centre their efforts on the learning processes of students. It presents a learning-based paradigm for higher education and demonstrates the close relationship between curriculum development and students' learning processes. The article has three sections: Section ''The role of higher education (HE) institutions'' presents a discussion of the role of higher education in the knowledge society. Section ''Contextual learning'' presents the paradigm of contextual learning which we see as a useful foundation for curriculum development. Section ''Curriculum development in practice-the BETA course'' shows how a particular course in Business Economic Theory and Analysis has been developed using this paradigm. The article will be of interest to all academics interested in students' learning processes but is especially relevant to those responsible for curriculum development.
PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to give concrete ideas to the development of MPA programmes in the light of the changing public sector. Following the introduction of ideas and practices from New Public Management, public managers face new requirements. The paper aims to deal with some of them and argues that in order to be a competent manager in the public sector today, one needs to be able to self‐develop four types of competence‐in‐practice: methodological competencies; theoretical competencies; meta‐theoretical competencies; and contextual competencies.Design methodology/approachThe approach in the paper is explorative and normative. The paper explores the changes and challenges in the public sector based on the aforementioned four types of competence‐in‐practice. Following that the paper presents a normative model for curriculum design and exemplify the development and possible processes of learning‐centered MPA programmes.FindingsThe paper finds that learning‐centred MPA programmes are fruitful for the development of said the types of competence‐in‐practice.Practical implicationsWith its particular focus on public sector management education this article may be relevant to curriculum developers, academics and practitioners interested in education and employability of public managers.Originality/valueThe paper shows that building on theories about learning, competencies, and curriculum development suggests a processual model for curriculum development that can inspire faculty members to develop learning‐centred MPA programmes where focus is learning and competence development.
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