Week 10: Academic Development and Building Academic Careers

Academic development and building academic careers in higher education in Maldives

The successful achievement of a high quality of education depends on the availability of an adequate stock of professionally educated, competent and motivated staffs. According to Ministry of Education-MoE (2014), Maldives MoE published a Professional Development Policy (PDP) on 2006 and encouraged Higher education institutions to conduct Professional Development (PD) activities. In this policy it states that it is mandatory for all academic staff in the higher education sector to receive a minimum of 15 hours (3 days) of professional development every year. This program focuses on the leading areas which are significant for the staffs to enhance the teaching and learning programs. In addition, new academics are mentored and coached by experienced academics within the field (MoE, 2014). Moreover, under the staff development policy, scholarships and study loans are granted for the most eligible staffs in the Education sector (Department of Higher Education, 2014).

However, a specific framework to guide the learning and teaching and research development has not been yet established. Moreover, an outline to recognize the talents or a staff promoting excellence criteria is not well articulated or accepted by the staffs. Hence, a lot of outstanding Maldivians do not enter the education sector. Especially the higher education sector faces the challenges in recruiting qualified staffs (Villa College, 2014). According to Hameed (2012), there was a favorable increment in the academic staffs of Maldives National University (MNU), the only university in Maldives. Due to this, lots of newly qualified staffs are attracted to work in MNU and also this acted as a huge strategy to retain the existing staffs (Hameed, 2012).

Impact of National Higher Education Academic and Career development on Villa College

Since, Villa College (VC) is a private higher education institution; it mainly follows its own policies for academic and career development. Firstly, in VC highly qualified staffs are hired (Villa College, 2014). For instance, to teach Certificates, Foundation and Diploma level courses, a minimum of Bachelor degree is required. Similarly to teach bachelor level courses a minimum of Masters level qualification is required and to teach masters level a minimum of Doctoral level qualification or masters and 5 years working experience is required.  Due to the challenge of recruiting fulltime qualified staffs, most of the academics in VC are visiting/part time lecturers who has the aforementioned qualifications (Villa College, 2014). Hence, VC provides annual Professional development programs, workshops and seminars for all its staffs.

My Reflection

A considerable amount of importance is given to the professional development of the staffs in the higher education system. In addition, other means of aid (scholarships, part time studying opportunities, small workshops, opportunities to attend international conferences) are provided to improve staff's capabilities within the field. However, absence of a formal framework on academic and career development in Maldives higher education and in VC indicates the negligence of a structured strategy to enhance the teaching and learning within the higher education system.

Therefore, with the knowledge I gained from world ranking universities academic development focus, I recommend Ministry of Education, Department of Higher Education and VC to establish an integrated framework to guide the teaching, learning and research development within the higher education sector to develop staff capabilities throughout their academic career. In addition, a framework needs to be established to promote excellence in learning and teaching strategies to ensure that the higher education sector provide incentive, reward and recognition of excellence for the staffs.

References

Department of Higher Education (2014). Announcement Number 46. Retrieved from May 19, 2014 from  http://dhe.gov.mv/wp-content/uploads/Masters-list-iulaan-46.pdf

Hameed (2012). Attaining Salary Raise in Austere times. Retrieved from May 19, 2014 from  http://mnu.edu.mv/vc/

Ministry of Education (2014). Staff development Policy. Retrieved from May 19, 2014 from  http://www.mnu.edu.mv/images/staff/current_staff/Policy/policy_staff_development.pdf

Villa College (2014). Retrieved from May 19, 2014 from http://www.villacollege.edu.mv/index.php/centres/institute-for-academic-development