Experts defend more flexible university curriculum

Institutional conservatism makes it difficult to change undergraduate course offerings in Brazil, say experts.

By Elton Alisson

Agência FAPESP – In the United States, both Harvard University and Stanford University have recently begun undergraduate curriculum reform to make their course curricula more flexible and to provide students with a more solid and diversified education.

In Brazil, however, this process is facing obstacles, such as institutional conservatism and faculty resistance to changes to the traditional form of classes, said experts who took part in the Excellence in Higher Education Symposium, held January 23-24 at FAPESP.

Organized by FAPESP in partnership with the Brazilian Academy of Sciences (ABC), the meeting was designed to discuss the determinants of excellence in higher education in Brazil and to formulate recommendations to inform public policy.

“The extreme conservatism among Brazilian universities in promoting undergraduate curriculum reform is resulting in a situation in which new institutions whose undergraduate programs have only recently been established are enjoying a greater level of success in the endeavor than older institutions,” said Luiz Davidovich, professor at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (URFJ) and director of the ABC.

“In other countries, however, traditional institutions have taken the lead in making these changes,” said Davidovich in his talk at the event.

According to Davidovich, the most recent curriculum reform at Harvard University began in the early 2000s and was led by Lawrence Summers, university president from 2000 to 2006.

The changes in the undergraduate course curriculum at that US university have increased interest among humanities students in going to biology laboratories to learn about other fields, said Davidovich.

In addition, Harvard students are now required to take at least one course such as “Culture and Belief” or “Aesthetics and Interpretation.”

Other US institutions have followed Harvard’s example, such as Stanford University, which established a commission consisting of professors from several departments to consider a new curriculum for that institution.

Countries such as China have moved in the same direction, promoting changes in the undergraduate course curricula of their universities to make them more flexible and to postpone specialization on the part of their students.

In 1998, the number of specialties offered in China was reduced from 504 to 249, and students entering Shanghai University could only select their field of specialization after completing one or two years of study, Davidovich said.

“The proposals found in the document Benefits of Higher Education Reform released by the ABC over ten years ago follow this same line of reasoning,” said Davidovich.

According to the professor, some of the document’s proposals include the introduction of a two- to three-year core curriculum of undergraduate courses with the possibility of transfer among several types of institutions and a reduction of the number of classroom hours and required courses to encourage study outside of the classroom and to give professors more time to address gifted students or those with learning disabilities.

The document also proposes that students should postpone declaring their major and that the curriculum should be more flexible instead of introducing new undergraduate programs.

“The introduction of new undergraduate programs is out of control in Brazil,” said Davidovich. “If an important field of knowledge comes along, such as nanotechnology, right away, we go out and set up a new undergraduate program for it,” he said.

The undergraduate course curriculum offered by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in the United States consists of a set of basic subjects and a series of additional electives, Davidovich noted.

“Nanotechnology is just one subject in the undergraduate physics program at MIT, just like philosophy and history of science,” he said. “This lean foundation of basic courses allows for electives to be added and student training to be diversified.”

Experiences in Brazil

In Brazil, one of the institutions that bet on this type of differentiated curriculum was the Federal University of the ABC (UFABC). The Bachelor of Science and Technology program curriculum offered by the university, founded in 2005, has a core curriculum of basic subjects.

After completing the required number of credits, students earn the Bachelor of Science and Technology degree, which qualifies them for further undergraduate studies in Engineering, Natural Sciences, Mathematics, or Computer Sciences.

It is also possible for students to pursue a Master’s degree at the same university or to transfer to other national and international institutions to pursue a specialty.

“The idea was not to change the basic curriculum but rather to reorganize it along thematic lines that are more suited to the world we live in, such as ‘The Structure of Matter,’ ‘Energy,’ ‘Process and Transformation,’ ‘Communication and Information,’ and ‘Mathematic Modeling,’” said Luiz Bevilacqua, speaking at the FAPESP event. Bevilacqua served as UFABC president from 2007 to 2008, when he participated in establishing that university’s instructional design.

“The undergraduate course curriculum at Brazilian universities needs to be more flexible because students don’t know exactly what they want when they first get to the university. A more flexible curriculum would free them up to make their own choices,” said Bevilacqua during his talk.

The curriculum framework in the engineering program at the Polytechnic School (Poli) of the University of São Paulo (USP) has also become more flexible in recent years, said José Roberto Cardoso, institution director.

Currently, the school’s incoming engineering students are able to take up to 15% of their course load however they like. In addition, the institution is discussing the possibility of decreasing the number of weekly class hours from the current 28.

“The weekly class hour requirement that has been in place for years has not allowed students to do things like participate in sports or learn a new language,” said Cardoso during his presentation.

“We’re in the process of reducing the number of class hours to a more reasonable level and making them more flexible as well,” he said.