Higher Education Review Process

Striving for Quality: Learning, Teaching and Scholarship

5. graduate outcomes for a new century

Higher education will need to demonstrate outcomes much more clearly – both research outcomes and student attainment. In relation to the latter, students will require a system that enables them to clearly identify their attributes, and these will need to be relevant to the 21st century. (Quality in Higher Education, 1996, p.182)

58   Professor Stuart MacIntyre has argued that: The Australian universities began as places of learning, as a mark of culture and distinction. They survived by making themselves useful. (2001, p.4)

59   The context and criteria for ‘usefulness’ change, and for Australian higher education institutions to survive they must continue to make themselves and their students relevant. To determine relevance and the effectiveness and quality of the higher education experience, we need to look to whether graduates are emerging with the skills, knowledge and learning outcomes that they need as individuals and that the nation requires for continued economic, social and cultural development. 

60   Graduate attributes or outcomes are sets of generic capabilities that ideally all graduates should possess by the end of their university learning experience, no matter what degree they have been awarded. There has been considerable confusion in the use of terms in this area, with outcomes, attributes and skills used interchangeably in some instances and distinctly in others. In the UK, there has been a general adoption of the use of ‘attribute’ rather than ‘skills’, in an effort to register a broader notion of ‘graduateness’ which encompasses knowledge, understanding, dispositions, attitudes and values, as well as skills. In Australia, the debate about terminology has been complicated as the development of graduate attributes has shadowed the development and adoption of the key competencies within the vocational education sector. 

61   A forward thinking and proactive approach to graduate outcomes is needed. There is little value in providing teaching and learning experiences that prepare students for the demands of the ‘old economy’, in which few people worked overseas. Higher education learning needs to inspire a sense of social responsibility that encourages full participation and active citizenship in a multicultural democracy. Graduate outcomes need to be focused on the needs of tomorrow. 

62   Since 1998, all Australian universities have been required to specify their generic graduate attributes in Quality Assurance and Improvement Plans, which are submitted to DEST as part of the annual profiles process. The first stage in the development of graduate attributes was essentially rhetorical, as universities made explicit statements valuing such capabilities. Most Australian universities are now working towards embedding their lists of graduate attributes into the curricula and developing strategies and systems for assessing and recording outcomes. 

63   Many institutions have conducted graduate or generic skills surveys to attempt to measure student (and sometimes staff and employer) perceptions of the development of generic capabilities in the students’ learning experience. The next stage, which many universities are pursuing, involves embedding graduate attributes in the curriculum. This requires an audit or mapping of the curriculum to determine where graduate attributes are being currently addressed or developed within a particular course. Whereas all Australian universities have embraced the specification of graduate attributes, the comprehensive integration of those attributes into the curriculum so as to ensure specific graduate outcomes, has been adopted with varied enthusiasm and commitment, with a number of institutions standing out as leaders.

64   No Australian university has yet adopted a university-wide strategy for curriculum integration and assessment focused on specific abilities. The University of South Australia is arguably the closest to this institutional model having worked since 1995 to integrate seven graduate attributes within its quality assurance and improvement process. 

65   The West Review produced a useful framework of Australian graduate outcomes, arguing that, ideally, every graduate with a first degree should have acquired the following attributes: 

• the capacity for critical, conceptual and reflective thinking in all aspects of intellectual and practical activity; 

• technical competence and an understanding of the broad conceptual and theoretical elements of his or her fields of specialisation;

• intellectual openness and curiosity, and an appreciation of the interconnectedness, and areas of uncertainty, in current human knowledge; 

• effective communication skills in all domains (reading, writing, speaking and listening);

• research, discovery, and information retrieval skills and a general capacity to use information;

• multifaceted problem solving skills and the capacity for team work; and 

• high ethical standards in personal and professional life, underpinned by a capacity for self-directed activity. (West, 1998, p.47)

66   By contrast, the Dearing Committee settled on four key skills that were considered to be essential to the future success of British graduates whatever they intended to do in later life: communication skills; numeracy; the use of information technology; and learning how to learn (NCIHE, 1997, 9.17).

67   What new knowledge and skills will be required of graduates to participate fully in the economic, social, cultural and civic life of the nation as it rapidly transforms into a more complex and global society? What level of knowledge and skills is necessary? Is some knowledge, once thought essential, no longer so? Are some skills once necessary, no longer needed? What outcomes can we anticipate will be expected from a graduate in 2010? How do we determine what knowledge and skills are required and necessary? 

68   In answering questions such as these, institutions need to consider the ongoing tension between a liberal, general education and a professional education. There is no need for these to be mutually exclusive. Ideally, a student should emerge from a higher education with a combination of relevant generic skills and specialised or professional skills. The dilemma for curriculum design is how to select and then ‘fit’ the development of an appropriate and achievable mix of skills and knowledge into a three or four year degree. 

69   The new century is generating a need for ‘emerging’ skills and knowledge that have not been previously a focus of higher education curricula. These include initiative and enterprise skills; information literacy and management skills; the capacity for lifelong learning; the ability to be adaptable and ‘learn-to-learn’ in jobs and roles yet to be envisaged; and the skills to work effectively in multidisciplinary contexts (ACNielsen, 2000; BHERT, 2002; Candy et al, 1994; Business Council of Australia, 2002). These needs reinforce the importance of building close relationships with industry, business and professional associations. According to Professor Ted Wolfe of Charles Sturt University: 

In terms of education, there is a clear need to continue to adapt courses to the changing industry profile. This adaptation is possible in terms of not only the availability of subjects and the flexibility of the course, but also the generic skills that are embedded in the course. (Wolfe, 2001) 

70   The need for effective processes for industry and business engagement permeates the entire higher education enterprise, including institutional planning. 

71   In a globally, competitive society, in which there is rapid technological and structural change, it will not be easy to balance and satisfy the public good and personal benefits in terms of graduate outcomes. Perhaps there are limits to what higher education institutions can achieve? It is debatable whether higher education should provide all of the skills and knowledge that employers would wish to see in a new graduate. Higher education institutions and their stakeholders, in particular employers and professional associations, need to form a more explicit compact to ensure that there is an ongoing dialogue about graduate outcomes based on an acceptance that there are expectations and responsibilities on both sides.

Return to the Top of the Page

Any comments or queries should be sent to: highered@dest.gov.au
This page was last updated on Monday, 04 August 2008

Department of Education, Science and Training
Copyright © Commonwealth of Australia
DEST Web Site Privacy Statement
Disclaimer