BC Research and Teaching University Representatives Interpreting and Implementing Provincial Policy, in Relation to the Transfer System Mandate for Baccalaureate Education: Case Study Research

Date
2015-07-31
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Abstract
This qualitative dual case study examined how administrators from two universities in the Canadian province of British Columbia (BC) implemented provincial policy at their university’s transfer credit and undergraduate level. The universities selected for the study were instrumental cases, facilitating understanding and insight of the institutions and their administrators as well as the public post-secondary system in general. The case universities represented two types of higher education institution in the BC post-secondary system that are important to baccalaureate education; namely, one research university and one new university-title and teaching institution. I explored interpretations of baccalaureate education, transfer credit, and related students’ experiences from multiple perspectives in a higher education organizational culture system. For the participants in the research, defining transfer, transfer mandates, and policy were personal, often historically derived concepts. For some participants, it was a limited, traditional definition; others demonstrated a wide understanding of transfer as part of the larger mobility concept. The research illuminated individual understanding of the research questions, reinforced known challenges, and identified opportunities for policy, practice, and research. My assumptions that students were highly regarded by case study participants and their institutions was supported in the research, but participants reflected confusion and frustration with the transfer credit process, for various reasons. The participants from the case universities represented multiple perspectives and interpretations, and the system was correspondingly complex.
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Keywords
Education--Administration, Education--Higher, Education--Sociology of
Citation
Smalcel Pederson, K. (2015). BC Research and Teaching University Representatives Interpreting and Implementing Provincial Policy, in Relation to the Transfer System Mandate for Baccalaureate Education: Case Study Research (Doctoral thesis, University of Calgary, Calgary, Canada). Retrieved from https://prism.ucalgary.ca. doi:10.11575/PRISM/25098