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 Partnerships Between Learning Institutions
Complex institutions can only be understood to a limited extent by analyzing their individual components. Their effectiveness stems from the coordinated interaction of their elements, as well as from well-functioning and effectively coordinated partnerships among learning venues.
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. Working in concert, these elements form the institutional framework for Industry-Integrated Practice-Based Higher Education.
Each institution fulfills a clearly defined function within the overall system. However, a lasting impact is achieved only when roles, responsibilities, and interfaces are systematically coordinated and work together as a coherent educational architecture.
Against this backdrop, a further research question arises:
What institutional relationships and governance mechanisms within an industry-integrated, practice-based higher education system contribute to the development of graduate competencies, graduate employability, and sustainable educational quality?
Educational Architecture
In this article, the term “educational architecture” is used to refer to this institutional framework. It describes the structure of the roles, responsibilities, interfaces, and coordination mechanisms that link the participating institutions into a coherent higher education system.
The quality of this architecture determines how effectively curricula, embedded workplace learning, assessment, governance, and quality assurance are aligned with shared educational goals. This creates the conditions for graduate capability, graduate employability, and sustainable educational quality.
Educational Architecture is neither an additional educational tool nor a teaching method. It describes the institutional framework that structures the collaboration among all stakeholders and integrates their contributions into an effective overall system.
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.
It is precisely this perspective that is 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
This article explains why the quality of educational architecture is a key prerequisite for the effectiveness of the industry-integrated, practice-based higher education approach.
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 coordinated with the other functions of an educational institution are crucial.
This article uses the term “educational architecture” to refer to these institutional prerequisites. It describes the structuring of roles, responsibilities, interfaces, and coordination mechanisms that link the participating actors into a coherent higher education system.
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Send an e‑mail to: contact@joshi-foundation.ch
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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.
