Curriculum in higher education: Beyond false choices

Abstract

This chapter is an invitation to "think about higher education" from the rich and contested site of curriculum. Much of the contestation around curriculum occurs against the backdrop of global concerns about a general failure of higher education evidenced in poor articulation between the school and university, poor completion rates, the performance gap between privileged and under-privileged, underemployed graduates, and the general failure of higher education to meet the needs of the knowledge society. Scott (2009) describes this crisis in South Africa as a systemic failure: higher education in South Africa is failing the majority of its young people.