Enablers of and Barriers to Successful Curriculum in Higher Education: A Literature Review

Literature shows that many curriculum reforms in higher education institutions

fail because curriculum change sponsors fail to identify and plan effectively and proactively to

deal with barriers to curriculum change as well as to harness enablers. One such critical reason

why curriculum change sponsors such as academic middle managers fail to adequately plan to

effectively deal with challenges to curriculum change as well as to maximize on the opportunities

provided by enablers to successful curriculum change has been shown in literature as lack of

knowledge. The above claim is further supported in other researches which show that for the

majority of curriculum users, their understanding of curriculum and curriculum change is still at

neophyte stage. This study therefore, supported by literature, wishes to lay claim to the fact that

there are as many enablers as there are challenges to successful curriculum change in higher

education which academic middle managers (AMMs) can take note of when planning as well as

implementing curriculum change. In laying the foundation for this claim, this study examines the

various enablers and challenges to successful curriculum change in higher education.