{"id":4594,"date":"2017-06-16T09:59:33","date_gmt":"2017-06-15T23:59:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sydney.edu.au\/education-portfolio\/ei\/teaching@sydney\/?p=4594"},"modified":"2017-07-24T17:41:46","modified_gmt":"2017-07-24T07:41:46","slug":"graduate-qualities-important","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/educational-innovation.sydney.edu.au\/teaching@sydney\/graduate-qualities-important\/","title":{"rendered":"Graduate qualities \u2013 what are they and why are they important?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Throughout\u00a0higher education there has been a lot of talk about graduate qualities \u2013 sometimes referred to as graduate attributes. Graduate qualities are usually defined as the non-discipline specific skills or attributes that that graduates will emerge with following their degree. In zooming out from the debates and discrepancies between the disciplines to focus on the end result, graduate qualities\u00a0ask us to state\u00a0more broadly what we hope students will gain from\u00a0three or four years of study at a significant cost in time, money and other resources. Though today graduate qualities are formalised in explicit lists compiled by Universities and external accrediting bodies, to some extent society has always held varying implicit\u00a0expectations about what a graduate should look like. This\u00a0is most literally, and memorably, expressed in The Great Gatsby<\/em>:<\/p>\n

\u201cI said I’d been making a small investigation of his [Gatsby\u2019s] past.””And you found he was an Oxford man,” said Jordan helpfully. “An Oxford man!” He was incredulous. “Like hell he is! He wears a pink suit.” (Fitzgerald,\u00a0The Great Gatsby,\u00a0<\/em>1925)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

We\u00a0are unlikely to find\u00a0a dress code included within the University’s strategic plan. Despite this, it is not uncommon for wider public discussion\u00a0to continue to make links between an individual\u2019s university education and their (expected) wider skills or behaviour. This is especially visible\u00a0in news media reporting on graduates’\u00a0educational pedigree, especially in cases involving some scandal or illegality. In the\u00a0case of the\u00a0‘Budgee 9’<\/a>\u00a0the\u00a0underlying expectation was that graduates should be more culturally aware or, failing that, have better choice in clothes\u00a0(pink suits or otherwise).<\/p>\n

While\u00a0social discussion and industry expectations are undoubtedly part of the graduate qualities discussion it would be a mistake to think of them as something that is externally imposed on educators. Ask most academics what they want of their students and few will state that they want students to simply\u00a0regurgitate other people\u2019s knowledge. Rather, we say that we want students to think critically, create and generate new knowledge, and do so in a way that is ethical, safe, or simply aware of wider issues. Similarly, in a\u00a0sector where disseminating knowledge can be as important as generating it, few would disagree that graduates should be able to communicate what they know,\u00a0whether as an essay, report, mathematical proof, or clinical\u00a0consultation. Central to the role of the University is to create and pass on knowledge. Whether we do this through research or teaching, our graduates are part of this discussion.<\/p>\n

Most people recognise that education is about more than just disciplinary knowledge. However, rendering these expectations explicit in a list of Graduate Qualities statements often leads to complicated and often contested territory. How do the qualities of the institution align with those from industry and other external accrediting bodies? \u00a0What role does the University have in teaching such things, assuming that they can be taught? Does including graduate qualities make a University a glorified training camp for industry? And what about the really difficult things like cultural competence – how can you begin to teach this in a semester, much less assess it? These questions do not have easy answers and under the often considerable workload\u00a0of an average semester, adding these questions into the mix may feel like one additional burden on an already lengthy ‘to do’ list.\u00a0Added to this, the language and discussion around graduate qualities has a peculiar mix of\u00a0the obvious and the obscure that may not only make it difficult to\u00a0engage with but may also makes this a really challenging component within curriculum design.<\/p>\n

Though dry and sometimes difficult there are several approaches that can support us. Firstly, \u00a0at an institutional level we have the Sydney Undergraduate Experience<\/a>\u00a0and the Strategic Plan, that outlines the graduate qualities that the University has identified.<\/p>\n