Page 177 - Crisis in Higher Education

148 • Crisis in Higher Education

For more information on this, there are a few books that describe the
application of lean thinking to universities, including W. K. Balzer (2010),
Lean Higher Education: Increasing the Value and Performance of University
Processes (Boca Raton, FL: CRC Press/Taylor & Francis Group). 3

7.2 PREPARING A PLAN OF STUDY
A plan of study is a list of courses that students must complete as well as
a timetable for completion, so students graduate in the shortest possible
time and avoid paying for courses that are not needed for graduation. For
a bachelor’s degree, the plan is an eight-semester schedule that students
should follow. For students without prior coursework, this means finish-
ing the degree in four years, so graduates can begin their careers as soon as
possible. For transfer students, it is the shortest path to graduation.
In effect, plans of study are contracts between students and the institution
that place demands on the institution to offer courses in sufficient quanti-
ties and at the proper times so students are not “closed” out of classes and
forced to wait for graduation. Plan of study software must have the ability to
track progress toward graduation. Students must have fast and easy access
so they can check and verify their progress as often as they like. This soft-
ware would be linked to registration software and would warn students and
their advisor, when students are (1) registering for a courses that is not in
the plan of study, (2) not registering for a course that is in the plan of study,
and (3) registering for a course now that should be taken later. This provides
students and advisors with sufficient time to discuss the schedule for the
semester and to keep students on track for graduation. There are other cir-
cumstances that may require a change to the plan, such as illness that causes
students not to complete courses. No matter the cause, a new plan of study
is created with the intent of enabling students to complete the degree in as
short a time as possible. All changes must be agreed to by the students.

7.3 IMPLEMENTING STUDENT-CENTERED LEARNING

The heart of student-centeredness is creating pedagogies that are custom-
ized to meet the different learning strengths of individuals. A first reaction