Claus Nygaard & Nigel Courtney 
Postgraduate Education – Form and Function [PDF ebook] 

This anthology presents integrated discussions of three central themes: learning in postgraduate education, developing a curriculum for postgraduate education, and supervising postgraduate learning. These themes are vital for a close understanding of how postgraduate education can be fostered in higher education, both in facilitating learning and as students’ learning outcome. The book’s theoretical contributions address questions such as: What is the theory behind learning in postgraduate education? How is the curriculum for postgraduate programs developed? Practical contributions address questions like: What constitutes learning in postgraduate education? What are the features of curricula in postgraduate education? In practice, how do we improve students’ learning in postgraduate studies? 

This book is a response to concerns that policies and practices of higher education have tended to draw too much attention toward academic content and to teaching as a core discipline. Yet literature suggests that students are often ill-prepared for the changes in learning, teaching, and curriculum approaches from the undergraduate to postgraduate levels. While the dominant belief appears to be that students learn when teachers transfer knowledge to them, the students themselves expect to function more independently in postgraduate education. 

This anthology presents an alternative view, moving from a discipline-based view to a learning-based view on higher education. Working with quality enhancement is the art of positively matching multiple stakeholder relations and at the same time continuously innovating within existing good practice. The chapter authors reflect upon proposed strategies for managing stakeholder relations.