From Prescriptive Curriculum to Accreditation Standards

Abstract

Curriculum is defined as an educational experience(Kern,
Thomas, & Hughes, 2010). It is not just syllabus but how a
syllabus is selected, organized, taught and assessed? It includes
‘Mission and Outcomes’, ‘Faculty Development’, ‘Student
Support’, ‘Governance’ and ‘Curriculum renewal’(Harden &
Education, 1986). The quality of the curriculum is ensured by
certain standards(Bendermacher, oude Egbrink, Wolfhagen,
& Dolmans, 2017). These standards are either global as
developed by World Federation of Medical Education
(WFME) or National for e.g. in UK by General Medical
Council, in USA by Accreditation Council for Graduate
Medical Education etc. These standards provide an outline
for the institutions to develop a curriculum(Karle, 2006). This
approach provides flexibility, innovation, contextuality and
variation but at the same time ensures uniformity of quality
unlike the prescriptive curriculum provided by the regulatory
body which bounds the institutes to follow same curriculum
irrespective of their resources and expertise.