Supercomplexity and the curriculum

For some time (around 100 years), the dominant influence tit the shaping of curricula has been that of the academics in their separate Knowledge field s. In the contemporary world, that academic hegemony is dissolving as curri cula become subject to two contending patterns of change. Firstly, in a mas s higher education system, there will be tendencies towards increased diver sity in the components of curricula, the positioning of the providing insti tution being just one influence to which are added manifold 'external' infl uences, such as a growing student market and the interests of employers. Se condly, and tit contradistinction to such diversity, as the state looks to see a greater responsiveness towards the world of work, it is possible that a universal shift in the direction of performativity is emerging: what cou nts is less what individuals know and more what individuals can do (as repr esented in their demonstrable 'skills'). Hitherto, systematic attention to curricula as such in higher education has been barely evident. Accordingly, curricula are taking on ad hoc patterns that are the unwitting outfall of this complex of forces at work, diversifying and universalising as-at the s ame time-these forces are. In consequence, curricula will be unlikely to yi eld the human qualities of being that the current age of supercomplexity re quires.