Academic Value Proposition

Education for a Better World

 

The Hearth helps universities develop new courses, relook at their academic value proposition, and reposition themselves within their research interests and with prospective students. Our work is with existing universities, or with new universities.

 

Our focus is to create universities that are world best-practice, which offer:

  • Excellence in research, development and dissemination of knowledge;
  • Outstanding education of their students; and
  • Activities that impact the community and contribute to the cultural, scientific, and civic life of society.

 

High-quality research leads to excellence in higher education. Excellent education requires that students not only study and learn the specific content of the areas of their primary interest but also study ideas that influenced those areas as well as the cultures of the world that form the context for all knowledge. It is not enough for students to read texts and write exam papers that repeat what they read; students must develop through their university courses the habits of mind that enable them to succeed.

 

The main areas of advice provided by the Hearth include developing the governance and academic objectives at the university level so that the research and teaching goals can be effectively met. We also assist in the formulation of programme research and teaching objectives (broad goals) and programme outcomes that address institutional and programme mission statements and stakeholders.

 

In some cases, the work of the Hearth extends to identifying the ‘programme core’, a set of courses in the curriculum that address the knowledge, skills, and attitudes specified in the outcomes, or perhaps identifying course content and defining measurable learning objectives for it.