Chartered Professional Examinations: Different Universities, Similar Degrees

Abstract

Higher education globally is characterized by numerous universities producing millions of graduates with slightly differentiated professional degrees. Graduates later race for common professional certification as the normal requirement of the job market. The motivation for many private universities is to breakeven even, remain profitable and sustain their positions in the market place. Public universities with science orientations focus more on scientific competence, research, innovation, and professionalism. A new system of Chartered Professional Examinations for non-business degrees is proposed and discussed in this article. The objective is to promote professionalism, develop and test competence and create an equivalence of all similar degree programs awarded by universities. Universities reserve the right and autonomy to function and award degrees as independent institutions of higher learning. Harmonization of examinations improves university education and standardize degrees across universities. PhD programs and master’s degrees are exempt from these examinations since many PhDs are research focused, therefore the contribution of a PhD degree is evaluated by the value of its scientific output.