HIGHER EDUCATION AS A PROFESSION: A CURRICULUM ANALYSIS (GRADUATE, PROFESSIONS).

Abstract

This study explores the nature and definition of a profession for the purpose of determining measurable criteria upon which the degree of professionalization of an occupation can be measured. Two criteria were persistent in the literature: the possession of unique skills and knowledge and an overriding service orientation. The occupation of Higher Education was then judged with these criteria. The service orientation was well-acknowledged in the literature as an occupational activity of Higher Education. In order to determine if Higher Education possesses unique knowledge and skills, a curriculum analysis was undertaken by using student transcripts, program handbooks, and university catalogs. The results of this study include confirmation of the existence of a core of courses which may be thought to define the unique skills and knowledge of Higher Education. The content of this core was compared with results of other studies (Dressel and Mayhew 1974, Basil 1980). The last phase of this study compared Higher Education curricular characteristics to those of other occupations, including the mature professions, for the purpose of describing the status of the professionalization of Higher Education. The findings of this study describe Higher Education as being more professionalized in terms of characteristics of the curriculum than the emerging professions of business and library science but less so than law and medicine. Additionally, there is evidence that over the ten-year time frame of the study, Higher Education has become more professionalized in terms of the maturity of its professions education.