The global appetite for micro-credentials could have a downside, denying students the underpinning knowledge they need to survive and thrive in an unpredictable future, critics have warned.

Following the release of a report on the qualifications in Australia, University of Toronto tertiary education researcher Leesa Wheelahan?said that higher education around the world risked becoming infected by the ¡°insidious philosophies¡± that have led to the ¡°dumbing down¡± of vocational education qualifications in her native Australia.

Professor Wheelahan likened micro-credentials to skill sets, an increasingly popular form of Australian training aimed at teaching tasks rather than trades. She said the approach deskilled workers and reduced their wages and conditions.

¡°A lot of the rhetoric about micro-credentials and digital badges is that people should be able to build degrees by aggregating all these bits,¡± Professor Wheelahan, a professor in Toronto's?Centre for the Study of Canadian and International Higher Education, told Times Higher Education. ¡°This is a fragmented vision in which the total is the sum of parts.

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¡°It undermines the role of degrees?[in] preparing individuals for work and life by engaging with a deep and sustained body of work, knowledge and skills.¡±

An Australian released earlier this month urges the country¡¯s universities, industry and government to support micro-credentials as a way of helping students cope with technology¡¯s impacts on jobs and industries.

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¡°Australia needs educational pathways that are flexible and modular,¡± says the report by consultants PricewaterhouseCoopers and the Australian Technology Network of Universities. ¡°Micro-credentials allow for effective modularised learning to meet the needs of lifelong learning.

¡°It is not suggested that micro-credentials will replace traditional offerings but rather supplement them. Combining universities¡¯ expertise in rigorous learning and critical thinking with the flexibility of micro?credentials gives a pathway well-suited to the future needs of work.¡±

The report cites ¡°micromasters¡± and ¡°nanodegrees¡± offered by the likes of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, online educator Udacity and ATN member universities Curtin and RMIT.

¡°RMIT Creds range from 30-minute snippets to several hours of learning which can be stacked or clustered to create more extensive programs,¡± the report says. ¡°Where appropriate, they embed into in a formal program of study.¡±

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The ATN is developing a national portal to ¡°showcase¡± its members¡¯ micro-credentials, short courses and massive open online courses.

Professor Wheelahan said she was not opposed to substantial top-up credentials?such as graduate certificates. ¡°These are long enough to enable sustained learning,¡± she said.

¡°If something is to qualify as higher education, it should require individuals to engage in debates and controversies in that field [to] develop perspectives as practitioners. Micro-skills training is just that ¨C training ¨C and this is not why we have invested in universities.¡±

Professor Wheelahan was scathing?about bite-sized courses in the vocational training sector, saying they benefited bosses at the expense of their staff. ¡°It provides employers with opportunities to pay less for workers who install windows or stairs, for example, compared to employing carpenters.

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¡°It undermines workers¡¯ autonomy. All the data show that qualifications matter for getting, keeping and being promoted in good jobs.¡±

New Zealand has that its qualifications authority will begin approving micro-credentials from the end of August.

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john.ross@timeshighereducation.com