Curriculum development and implementation: factors contributing towards curriculum development in zimbabwe higher education system

TLDR: In this paper, the authors investigated factors that guide curriculum development in higher education in Zimbabwe and found that curriculum development is influenced by technological advancement, demands by students, society expectations, industry and commerce, globalisation, partnerships by institutions, the need for professionalism in business, academic research to revamp the economy, competition among institutions and government expectations, among others.

Abstract: Curriculum development is a key educational process that can boost the innovative capacity of a higher education institution. This study sought to investigate factors that guide curriculum development in higher education in Zimbabwe. It was prompted by continuous changes in the curriculum of higher education institutions which include universities, polytechnical colleges and teachers’ colleges. The study was qualitative by nature. Open-ended questionnaire was used as the main data gathering instrument. The major findings of the study were that curriculum development in Zimbabwe is influenced by factors such as technological advancement, demands by students, society expectations, industry and commerce, globalisation, partnerships by institutions, the need for professionalism in business, academic research to revamp the economy, competition among institutions and government expectations, among others. Key terms: curriculum development, innovation, higher education, curriculum change BACKGROUND Higher education curriculum around the world is witnessing a significant shift in its expectations to help address immediate and longer-term sustainable development challenges. Curriculum development is a key educational process for educational developers for schools and higher education (HE) as it allows an educational course to be designed to meet defined needs. There is now a growing realisation for the need to foster entrepreneurial education in HE institutions with the specific aim to encourage entrepreneurial development, skills, and awareness (Commission of the European Communities, 2006; Seikkula-Leinoetal., 2010). Curriculum development cycles in HEIs have in general become more rapid due to many factors including: competition between institutions; and the expectations of government, employers and students that an educational programme will provide the most contemporary knowledge in a particular discipline (Roffe, 2010). Higher education curriculum has to be directed towards meeting societal needs and aspirations in every case. It is argued that education cannot be value free and different value systems or value ideologies generate different curricula. According to