Education Reference Frameworks Explained to the Unwashed Masses

This is an email I sent at some point to explain to a junior colleague the notion of an education reference framework which was a deliverable of a large research project proposal.

Let X be your favorite government, agency etc. X wants a reference education framework and, typically, has set aside a sizeable budget you want apply for or a certification programme you would.

Disclaimer: As you can imagine, if you need to be told, numbers of hours and subjects are illustrative [i.e. appropriately invented].

Something like the ACM/IEEE recommended Curriculum for Computer Science and Engineering. To call yourself Computer Scientist according to the ACM/IEEE your degree program must have :

• 30hrs of Operating Systems,
• 29hrs of Algorithms,
• 42hrs of Computer Graphics,
• …
• 20hrs of KissMyAss and
• 35hrs of BendYouKnee.

For each of those subjects the document spell out what is supposed to be done in the 20hrs of KissMyAss to be call that way and not BendYouKnee. Hours and selection of topics are objective and never depend on whoever among The Goods & The Greats was in that committee (Homework 1). But let's not get drawn into revolutionary thoughts.

Another exampe is the DHS effort which created knowledge areas (aka superset of courses) and said

• DHS: “hey do you want to that we hire you graduates as security experts no question asked?”
• University: “Yes.”
• DHS: “Well, you show me that your degree programme has” ….
  • 20hrs of InformationAssurance,
  • 15hrs of Cryptography,
  • 32hrs of NetworkForensics,
  • …
  • 20hrs of NoQuestionNoLie and
  • 2hrs of BendYourKnee.
  • (KissMyAss recommended elective for the government track).

You have to collect all reasonable areas and extend them to few pages of rant detailed description that extend into a document showing that 20hrs of BendYouKnee (US) are more or less the same as 15hrs of KissMyHand (UK).

It might be that multple nations are involved in which case you and some chum of yours TheG&TheG Committe of reknown scientists then show that 15hrs with 6hrs Lab KissMYHand (UK) are equal to 25hrs of BaciaManinaTestaChina (IT) and 2liters of GewurzTraminerHalbTrocken (AT).

So we end with an “aligned educational feamework” and X is happy to recommend it, make it mandatory, whatever to all its stakeholders.

You shouldn't be worried of bringing nations to racks and ruins as

• Academics will ignore it wholesale because the 17hrs of SwirlYouHead taugth by Prof.Dr.Eng. J.H. Knowsall chair of nation Z TheG&TheG Committee is not included as you didn't know it existed (“Oh My God, how can one possibly graduate without that? I mean, really…”)
• Companies will ignore it as well but will set a parallel parrot bogus test that costs a lot of money because it shows that the candidate is an entrepreneurial type and will do whatever to get the job (including answering questions wrong).

From your personal perspective, dropping few words on it helps securing a cushy academic job if the head of a degree program sitting in the interview panel has an accreditation meeting coming soon (but beware it will severely backfire if accreditation just passed).

So said, around 99.9% of academics think this is a very serious issue improving the quality of education. Some of them even started setting up accreditation bodies (Homework 2).

1. Prove that finding similar topics in “Software and Security Engineering” Syllabi as taught by X [LeftRight Fellow, impact award, and most cited paper ever] and by Y [UpsandDowns Fellow, with an equally sizeable pile of impact awards and cited papers] is NP-hard.
2. Prove by DNA sequencing that members of accreditation bodies and shopkeepers selling picks and mules to gold diggers in California belong to the same genetic pool.