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Tuning USA

Accountability and Outcomes Main Page

Sponsors:

Lumina Foundation for Education initiated this project.

Funders:

Lumina Foundation for Education

Key Staff:

Principal advisers are Clifford Adelman, Institute for Higher Education Policy; Robert Wagenaar, a professor at the University of Groningen in The Netherlands, and co-coordinator of the projects Tuning Educational Structures in Europe, Tuning South-East and Eastern Europe, Tuning Latin America, Tuning Russia, and Tuning Georgia; and Tim Birtwistle, a Bologna expert and professor at Leeds Metropolitan University in the United Kingdom. Foundation contacts for the project are Holly McKiernan, senior vice president and general counsel; Kevin Corcoran, program director; and Marcus Kolb, program officer.

Goals/Orientation:

Tuning USA is a faculty-led pilot project designed to define what students must know, understand, and be able to demonstrate after completing a degree in a specific field. Tuning USA methodology is based on similar work to increase the transparency around what a degree represents under Europe's Bologna Process.

Tuning involves creating a framework that sets forth clear responsibilities for institutions and establishes clear learning expectations for students in each subject area, while balancing the need among programs to retain their academic autonomy and flexibility. The objective is not to standardize programs offered by different institutions, but to better establish the quality and relevance of degrees in various academic disciplines. Lumina enumerates the following benefits arising from the Tuning process:

  • Making higher education more responsive to changes in knowledge and its application.
  • Establishing the relevance of postsecondary programs to societal needs and workforce demands.
  • Aligning the roles of higher education institutions.
  • Facilitating retention, especially among students from underserved groups, by creating clear pathways to degree completion.
  • Simplifying the process for students transferring credits between institutions.
  • Increasing the emphases on lifelong learning and important-but-often undervalued transferable skills.
  • Increasing student engagement in the learning process.

Work Plan:

Lumina Foundation for Education initiated Tuning USA in December 2008. Following a planning session, attended by higher education officials from several states, the foundation sought proposals from interested states. Lumina asked states to recruit at least two subject-area teams that included both faculty members and students. Each team includes representatives from several institutions, including a flagship campus. Public and private not-for-profit institutions are participating. In March 2009, Lumina awarded Indiana, Minnesota, and Utah $150,000 grants to offset project costs. The three state teams will meet together at least two or three times during the course of the project.

The state teams will function as study groups that will explore the design, phases and outcomes of Tuning in Europe and elsewhere. While assessing the potential of the Tuning approach, state teams may make reasonable modifications in consultation with Lumina or its consultants to make the process more worthwhile in their respective settings. State teams also should consider developing full qualifications frameworks for their states.

Accomplishments:

The project currently has support from Utah’s assistant commissioner for higher education; the Indiana Commission for Higher Education; and the Minnesota Office of Higher Education. The states have selected the academic disciplines on which they will focus during the project and have recruited faculty from those disciplines to participate.

Upcoming Activities:

Lumina Foundation for Education expects the Tuning process to include input via surveys from students, recent graduates, and employers. The University of Groningen in the Netherlands has offered to assist with these surveys and field tests. Depending on interest among state participants, other stakeholders could be involved, including K–12 teachers, representatives of accrediting bodies, trustees, and policymakers. State teams also will map graduates' employability in each Tuning subject area to positions in the labor market.

By the end of 2009, state teams will provide Lumina with:

  • Final reports that describe the results of field testing and surveying to determine reference points.
  • A map of the employability of students who major in the subject areas.
  • A set of agreed-upon reference points for each subject area.
  • Draft degree profiles of academic programs grounded in explicit learning outcomes.
  • An overview and assessment of the process, and recommendations for further work.

Web Address:

www.luminafoundation.org/our_work/tuning/

Revised:

08/20/2009

 

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