A fundamental question
Educational reforms often begin with a revision of the curriculum. This is understandable. The curriculum defines the competencies students are expected to acquire. What is less obvious, however, is how this learning actually leads to graduate competencies and graduate employability.
Technological change, artificial intelligence, and evolving skill sets are leading to the revision of curricula, the further development of learning outcomes, and the adaptation of assessment methods worldwide.
These developments are essential. However, they account for only part of the quality of education.
A curriculum describes what students are expected to learn. However, it does not explain why institutions with comparable curricula sometimes achieve very different outcomes in terms of graduate competencies and graduate employability.
So the real question is:
Under what institutional conditions do graduate competencies and graduate employability emerge?
For years, international educational research has been examining why comparable reforms lead to different outcomes at different institutions. In this context, attention is increasingly turning to the institutional conditions necessary for successful educational development.
From Curriculum to Institution
In its policy paper *Ecosystems Approach to Curriculum Change* (2026) , the OECD points out that the success of curriculum reforms depends largely on the institutional environment in which curricula are developed, implemented, and continuously refined. (OECD, 2026)
Michael Fullan ’s work also shows that sustainable educational development can be understood as a coherent process of institutional change in which the impact arises not from individual reform elements, but from their coordinated interaction (Fullan, 2007; Fullan, 2011; Fullan & Quinn, 2016).
This broadens the scope of the question posed above, because it is not only the quality of a curriculum that matters. Equally relevant are the institutional conditions under which a curriculum can effectively achieve its intended impact.
The Importance of Institutional Relationships
Complex institutions can only be understood to a limited extent by analyzing their individual components. Their effectiveness stems from the interaction of their elements.
This insight is reflected in numerous academic disciplines. It is also becoming increasingly important for the further development of industry-integrated, practice-based higher education.
The Bhartiya Skill Development University (BSDU) follows this developmental approach and is gradually refining it within the Indian higher education context. The focus is on curricula, assessment, governance, pedagogy, embedded workplace learning, faculty development, quality assurance, and collaboration with industry. Together, these elements form the institutional framework of Industry-Integrated Practice-Based Higher Education.
Each of these elements serves a distinct function. However, their lasting impact is realized only when the relationships between the elements are consciously shaped.
Against this backdrop, a further research question arises:
Which institutional relationships among the elements of an industry-integrated, practice-based higher education system lay the groundwork for graduate competencies, graduate employability, and sustainable educational quality?
Educational Architecture
In this article, the term “educational architecture” is used to describe this institutional interplay. It refers to the relationships between the central elements of industry-integrated, practice-based higher education.
Only the coordinated interaction of these elements creates the institutional conditions necessary for graduate competencies, graduate employability, and sustainable educational quality.
Educational Architecture is neither an additional educational tool nor a teaching method. It provides the institutional framework within which curricula, embedded workplace learning, governance, assessment, and the other elements of industry-integrated, practice-based higher education can collectively achieve their intended impact.
An Institutional Perspective
The international recognition of Switzerland’s dual education system is often attributed to specific measures. However, when one examines its institutional development over a longer period of time, a different picture emerges.
Its particular strength lies not so much in individual curricula or pedagogical approaches, but rather in the institutional coherence with which educational institutions, the business sector, governance, quality assurance, and work-integrated learning have been linked over the decades.
This perspective, in particular, seems relevant for institutions that are developing industry-integrated, practice-based higher education.
The focus here is not on transferring an existing system. Rather, it is about transferring institutional principles to a new higher-education context and integrating them there into an independent educational architecture.
Conclusion
The revision of curricula remains an indispensable prerequisite for the quality of industry-integrated, practice-based higher education. However, international educational research makes it clear that its impact cannot be viewed in isolation. The institutional conditions under which curricula are developed, implemented, and integrated with the other elements of an educational institution are crucial.
This is exactly where Educational Architecture comes in. It describes the institutional framework within which these relationships can be deliberately shaped.
Further Research Question
Against this backdrop, a further research question arises:
What institutional conditions lay the groundwork for industry-integrated, practice-based higher education to foster graduate competencies, graduate employability, and sustainable educational quality?
Do you have any questions about the project?
Send an e‑mail to: contact@joshi-foundation.ch
We will be happy to answer your question.
Rajendra and Ursula Joshi Foundation / DualEdu Bridge India
Rolf Siebold
Other articles document the development of DualEdu Bridge India, as well as the establishment of industry-integrated, practice-based higher education in the Indian higher education context. You can also find us on LinkedIn.
