Mapping UNSW Graduate Capabilities
Graduate capabilities (attributes) are the qualities, skills and understandings a university community agrees its students should develop during their time with the institution.
These capabilities include, but go beyond, the disciplinary expertise or technical knowledge that has traditionally formed the core of most university courses. They are qualities that graduates should possess to be agents for social good in an unknown future.
You should develop and assess graduate capabilities explicitly, systematically and within a discipline-specific context. In Generic Capabilities of ATN University Graduates (2000), Bowden et al. provide a definition of graduate capabilities that has become commonly accepted and applied in many Australian universities.
Existing attributes
UNSW Faculties have given the University's overall Graduate Capabilities a particular disciplinary and professional context. Click the following links to see specific Faculty capabilities (note that these examples are based on previous Graduate Capabilities, 2003):
- Faculty of the College of Fine Arts
- Australian School of Business
- Faculty of Engineering
- Faculty of Science
- Faculty of Medicine Health Management programs
- Faculty Graduate Capabilities
- Phase 1 expectations for the Graduate Capabilities
Support from the Learning and Teaching Unit
The Learning and Teaching Unit can help you develop and assess graduate capabilities in a number of ways, including:
- providing Workshops and Events such as the Connections Seminar Series
- developing resources such as toolkits to help staff develop and assess contextualised graduate capabilities
- supporting the development of policies and procedures related to graduate capabilities such as Curriculum Mapping.
The Learning and Teaching Unit can also present the UNSW Learning and Teaching Awards.
Resources
- Business Higher Education Round Table (B-HERT) Position Paper No. 9 - Enhancing the Learning and Employability of Graduates: The Role of Generic Skills (PDF)
- DETYA Evaluation and Investigations Program - Employer Satisfaction with Graduate Skills (PDF)
- Australian Council for Educational Research (ACER) - Employability Skills for Australian Industry: Literature Review and Framework Development (PDF)