Title: "If it ain't broke, don't fix it": internationalisation and the erosion of the positive hidden curriculum in Danish higher education

Authors: Maribel Blasco; Charles Tackney

Addresses: Department of Intercultural Communication & Management, Copenhagen Business School, Denmark ' Department of Intercultural Communication & Management, Copenhagen Business School, Denmark

Abstract: Denmark is among the world's most competitive nations. It also has a strong tradition of citizenship-oriented higher education, promoted through the widespread Problem-Oriented Project Work (POPW) didactic approach. We argue that recent changes to this tradition have modified the incentives embedded in the hidden curriculum, which made Danish higher education effective at producing graduates with analytical and personal abilities and dispositions, such as reflexivity, curiosity, collaboration and trust that are particularly suitable for today's globalised, knowledge-based economies. We illustrate this by drawing on examples of changes to an education programme at a Danish business school.

Keywords: hard skills; soft skills; Denmark; higher education; universities; hidden curriculum; symbolic analysts; incentives; assessment; trust; internationalisation; citizenship; problem-oriented project work; didactic approaches; analytical abilities; personal abilities; analytical dispositions; personal dispositions; reflexivity; curiosity; collaboration; globalised economies; knowledge-based economies; education programmes; business schools; education management.

DOI: 10.1504/IJMIE.2013.056640

International Journal of Management in Education, 2013 Vol.7 No.4, pp.341 - 359

Published online: 13 Sep 2014 *

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