In search of graduate attributes: A survey of six flagship programmes

Winberg, Christine; Staak, Anthony; Bester, Marianne; Sabata, Siya; Scholtz, Desiree; Sebolao, Rosaline; Monnapula-Mapesela, Mabokang; Ronald, Nick; Makua, Manyane; Snyman, Jacques; Machika, Pauline

doi:10.20853/32-1-1642

Cited by 5 publications

(7 citation statements)

References 23 publications

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“…University lecturers engage in responsive programme development to ensure that expectations of competencies and skills are aligned but questioned the extent to which the curriculum development process was seen as democratic and inclusive. Winberg, et al (2017) point to concerns that have been expressed about student employability and graduate attributes in terms of the needs of the workplace. Allen (2009) argues that there has been an awareness of the theory-practice gap of beginner teachers, but that teacher educators have not been able to address this successfully.…”

Section: Emerging Insightsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Unveiling the professional attributes of university teachers

Dunpath

Friedrich-Nel

Dippenaar

et al. 2021

CriSTaL

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This article derives from a collaborative higher education project, conceptualised, and implemented by academics from seven South African universities. These academics are members of the South African Teaching Advancement at University (TAU) Fellowship. The project has its roots in the Department of Higher Education’s National Framework for Enhancing Academics as University Teachers, which identifies six leverage points or ‘imperatives for action’, one of which is the imperative to develop expectations (attributes) of academics in their role as university teachers. TAU Fellows engaged in the collaborative enquiry over a period of three years, appropriating a conceptual framework posited by Henry Giroux, of teachers as transformative intellectuals. In this article, each author reflects on his/her own scholarship of teaching and learning (SoTL) endeavours, which provided the conceptual tools to illuminate what for them and the group, are valuable professional attributes. The metaphor of the Baobab tree is appropriated to signify ‘rhizomatic thinking’, which portrays teaching as subconscious, subversive, non-linear, multi-directional, serendipitous, esoteric, dynamic, unbounded, unpredictable, adaptive, and non-hierarchical. This SoTL enquiry enabled the TAU group to unveil and declare their professional attributes as they made public their praxis. The attributes include academics as imbued with the capacity for critical thinking and actively promoting critical thinking amongst their students; as active learning mediators; as responsive, innovative, and relevant curriculum designers; and as engaged professionals. Appreciation of the article is enhanced when the reader first views this video https://youtu.be/yoA9guMut-8.

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Section: Emerging Insightsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Unveiling the professional attributes of university teachers

Dunpath

Friedrich-Nel

Dippenaar

et al. 2021

CriSTaL

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Firstly, there needs to be a re-engagement with graduate attributes at a theoretical level throughout the university. This does not only pertain to UWC as a case in time, but may be true for most universities in South Africa (see, for instance, Bawa 2014; Brits 2018; Winberg et al 2018). As has been pointed out in our study, students are often uninvolved in the process of discussing and debating the underpinning departure points of this domain of inquiry.…”

Section: Theoretical Implicationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Graduate attributes: How some university students experience and learn them

Bitzer

Withering

2020

SAJHE

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The voices of university students are often absent from academic discourses on the learning of graduate attributes (GAs). Such attributes are mostly constructed and conceptualised from the viewpoint of academics, institutions, education authorities and industry. However, as students within democratic contexts are increasingly challenged to assume greater responsibility for their own growth and development, it seems imperative that they participate in discussions related to the acquiring of graduate attributes. This article reports on how students at one South African university understand and relate to graduate attributes. Data were generated from a group of students at the University of the Western Cape through focus group interviews and photo elicitation. The results indicate that students who understand what graduate attributes are and how they can acquire these attributes might enhance such students' further growth and their employability.

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“…Despite the wider contextual backdrop, there are simultaneously multiple institution-specific factors, such as tradition and culture, which affects how each university is to define and advance their own distinctive graduate attributes in order to attract students to enrol in their programmes and build their own reputation within the competitive environment (Aitken et al, 2019). In the words of Bester et al (2018), any graduate attributes that are decontextualised are unlikely to be implemented or attained, given that they the structural and contextual forces are influencing the shaping of these attributes among universities. Therefore, it is useful for understanding how graduate attributes are conceptualised and framed by various Hong Kong universities, and revealing the similarities and differences of their underlying motivations and implications, especially through both the lenses of academic entrepreneurialism and future readiness as two dominant discourses.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Exploring the future-ready graduate attributes across the undergraduate curricula from the eight publicly funded Hong Kong universities in the era of academic entrepreneurism

Lam

2024

International Journal of Chinese Education

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Given Hong Kong’s robust, high-performing, and entrepreneurial higher education system, universities are preparing their students to adapt, contribute, and thrive as productive workers, capable citizens, and life-long learners. With the employment of both qualitative document analysis and inductive thematic analysis, this study aims to analyse how the eight publicly funded universities in Hong Kong conceptualise and frame their graduate attributes, and reveal the similarities and differences of their underlying motivations and implications. This study brings together eight discourses, namely life-long learning, critical thinking, communication and collaboration, interdisciplinary mindset, contextual systems thinking, commitment and responsibility, ethical values and moral principles, as well as technological capability. Using both the lenses of academic entrepreneurism and future readiness, although several attributes are founded to be academically entrepreneurial in orientation due to the emphasis on equipping students with individual skills and dispositions, some other attributes are bringing students back to the humanistic and social nature of human beings, which reveal that Hong Kong universities are preparing their future-ready students both as agents for personal development and of social good. This study can inform how various universities worldwide can revamp and reinvigorate a common set of future-ready graduate attributes, while contextualising and adapting institution-specific variations.

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In search of graduate attributes: A survey of six flagship programmes

Cited by 5 publications

References 23 publications

Unveiling the professional attributes of university teachers

Unveiling the professional attributes of university teachers

Graduate attributes: How some university students experience and learn them

Exploring the future-ready graduate attributes across the undergraduate curricula from the eight publicly funded Hong Kong universities in the era of academic entrepreneurism

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