Do academic disciplines matter? An analysis of organizational responses to the accreditation of graduate programs by field of study and sector

Abstract

Accreditation in higher education has become omnipresent and, on many occasions, has been used as a synonym for quality assurance. The establishment of accreditation agencies as a worldwide phenomenon, however, is relatively recent in the history of higher education. Through a predominantly qualitative approach, this paper aims to analyze how programs from different academic disciplines perform in terms of the accreditation of graduate programs in Argentina and how different programs respond to the same accreditation process. Additionally, it analyzes the performance of private sector programs. As expected, academic disciplines play a vital role in the accreditation process, programmatic performance, and responses to this quality assurance mechanism while sector may not play a vital role. Surprisingly, soft pure programs perform better than both hard and soft applied programs. The results highlight the importance of considering both the paradigm (hard or soft) and level application (pure or applied) when analyzing the role of academic disciplines in higher education studies.

Advancing the understanding of the flipped classroom approach with students' perceptions of the learning environment: variation between academic disciplines

“…Specifically, we adopt Biglan's (1973) model to classify academic disciplines. His work has received continuous interest (e.g., Becher, 1994;Jones, 2011;Lam et al, 2014;Fedi et al, 2021;Salto, 2021;Shin et al, 2021). Scholars usually adopt his model to classify the academic disciplines as any combination of soft versus hard, pure versus applied, and life versus and pure versus applied (how much the subject knowledge is practical), are more relevant to the teaching pedagogies and instruction method because of their close relations with the core of the subject knowledge.…”

Disciplinary Expertise and Faculty Credentialing in Leadership Studies: Advancing a Necessary Conversation

“…Efforts to synthesize and define a comprehensive research agenda have also helped to formalize and advance the field of study (Andenoro et al, 2013; Andenoro & Skendall, 2020; Jenkins & Dugan, 2013). Within the academy, external standards for accreditation require a clear alignment of disciplinary traditions, programmatic conceptual paradigms, instructional activities, and student learning outcomes (Salto, 2021). Rather than adopting standardization and processes of accreditation, however, leadership studies has thus far relied on guiding questions (Ritch & Mengel, 2009) and general principles (International Leadership Association, 2021).…”