Abstract

Considerable concern is being paid to the professionalization of education. Professionalising higher education in a way in many countries is trying to build a bridge between theory and practice. First of all, it is important to know and understand that academics cannot be professionalised. This paper aims to explore a way to professionalise higher education. Data for the study is based on books and interviews with business people and university management/entrepreneurship students. A total of 225 interviewees, were distributed as follows: Undergraduate management/entrepreneurship students, 100; MBA students, 61; EMBA students, 14; business people, 50. Frequency distribution table was used to analyse the data collected. The result suggests that some areas of education can be professionalised, by making it practical through the introduction of plays, games, storytelling and using proverbs. The research suggests a democratic approach whereby the opinions of students are listened to and considered in the process of teaching and learning. The conclusion is that, activities such as self-paced design projects of taking students outside the lecture halls or classrooms either for practical work or discussions under a more relaxed and perhaps more conducive, attractive and enabling environments need to be adopted. This approach is likely to provide a new view of teaching and motivations for creative and innovative ideas generation to take place with greater dividends to the overall progress of professionalisation and society.  Proactive policy recommendations are progressive.

Key words: Academics, creating, excellence creating new teaching environments, professionalisation, practical work, creativity, innovation.