COMPARING THE CDIO STANDARDS WITH THE WORKINTEGRATED LEARNING CERTIFICATION

Improving the quality of higher education is an important responsibility of universities and colleges. Several approaches have been developed with the goal of improving the quality of university study programs. In this paper we compare the CDIO (Conceive, Design, Implement, Operate) and the work-integrated learning (WIL) initiatives based on recently completed WIL certifications at University West. Through a series of workshops, the CDIO standards are compared with the aspects and criteria of the WIL certification guidelines, to identify overlapping areas and differences between the two initiatives. The results show that both initiatives overlap but also differ in several aspects. These differences could be useful to strengthen the WIL certification process at University West as well as clarifying the connection between CDIO and work-integrated learning.