This project is part of the Scottish higher education Enhancement Themes initiative and is entitled 'graduates for the 21st Century'. It is a two-year project with the aim of bringing about a co-ordinated focus on graduate attributes in Scottish HEIs across a number of sub-themes: the First Year, research-teaching linkages, assessment, student needs and employability. This has so far resulted in a shift towards more active and participatory modes of learning that develop graduate attributes across academic disciplines.
One of the major initiatives in Scotland that has tried to tackle these issues is the 'The Graduates in the 21st Century Enhancement Theme'. This aims to encourage Scottish higher education institutions to focus on the development of graduate attributes. Within this approach there is a focus on the integration of previous Enhancement Themes such as ‘The First Year Experience’, ‘Assessment’, ‘Research-Teaching Linkages’, and ‘Responding to Student Needs’. It is recognised that these aspects need to be co-ordinated in such a way as to equip an increasingly diverse student population with the attributes required for a knowledge society and economy.
The 2009 synthesis report from the Global University Network for Innovation (GUNI) entitled Higher Education at a time of Transformation: New Dynamics for Social Responsibility draws attention in its introduction to the many challenges confronting the higher education sector that stem from those of wider society: beyond the 'ivory tower' or 'market-oriented university' towards one that innovatively adds value to the process of social transformation. The report argues that this creation and distribution of socially relevant knowledge is something that needs to be core to the activities of universities, thereby strengthening their social responsibility (p 7). The report goes on to outline the emerging tensions that bear upon this question and coalesce around a set of interlinked oppositional themes: reactive versus proactive institutions with respect to knowledge paradigms; the knowledge economy versus the knowledge society; universities for the public good or private good; and knowledge relevance versus competitively-driven knowledge. However, the stress on social transformation is also one that equates to personal transformation in terms of the development of graduate attributes. In effect, higher education is viewed as a means towards creating a particular kind of identity linked to social transformation. As the GUNI suggests, this calls for a rethink regarding the purpose of higher education; a purpose that is one of transformation rather than transmission.
This move away from the almost exclusive focus on higher education as involving the transmission of knowledge to a growing focus of the learner and the transformational nature of the experience has been a feature of the Scottish system. At present all twenty Scottish higher education institutions are currently working on the ‘Graduates for the 21st Century Enhancement Theme’ which attempts to consolidate and build on the previous Themes. A major focus of this work is the development of graduate attributes in terms of the qualities that graduates acquire during the course of their learning.
These qualities are key to being able to contribute to the evolving knowledge economy and society that we now live in. The ability to adapt to changing circumstances, to work across knowledge boundaries and to become active and engaged citizens are therefore crucial outcomes for this approach. The current focus for this presentation is that of the First Year experience. If there is one thing that has shaped our approach to the changing nature of higher education it is the increased diversity of students at the point of entry. It is the widening of participation and the concomitant increased diversity of student background that has forced us to rethink how we encourage the development of graduate attributes across such a diverse body of students.
This project explores ways in which this can be accomplished through a focus on innovation in pedagogic and assessment practices. For example, there has been early work on group learning in inter-disciplinary contexts involving debating topical issues that cut across programmes and that seek to encourage a sense of civic awareness.
'Graduates for the 21st Century' pursues an integrating approach that considers aspects of all the previous Themes within the context of overarching questions: what should be the attributes of a graduate from Scottish Higher Education in the 21st century and how can the achievement of these attributes best be supported? Taking place within institutions and across the Scottish sector, the consideration of ‘graduate attributes’ encompasses not just established attributes such as critical thinking, but also the values that inform the work of universities, their contribution to culture, citizenship and intellectual growth.
Each University has put in place an institutional team to take forward and coordinate the work of the Theme within their institution.
Clusters of common interest have been identified around particular issues, facilitating discussion and the possible development of collaborative projects and cross-institutional linkages.
1. Institutional Each University has put in place an institutional team to take forward and coordinate the work of the Theme within their institution. Informed by internal considerations of graduate attributes, these teams are assisting in aligning the work of the previous Themes with its particular institutional priorities and implementation plans.
2. Areas of shared interest One aim of the Theme is to help institutions in sharing and learning from enhancement approaches from across the whole spectrum of higher education institutions in Scotland and, as with previous Themes, from approaches outside Scotland. Clusters of common interest have been identified around particular issues, facilitating discussion and the possible development of collaborative projects and cross-institutional linkages.
3. Sectoral A key aim of the 21st Century Graduate Theme is the engagement of all Scottish higher education institutions in a general consideration of, the type of graduates attributes necessary for the evolving 21st Century, the likely needs of the increasingly diverse range of learners and how to support the diversity of learners in the achievement of such attributes.
Some of the key innovative aspects of the work to date are as follows:
(i) Inter-disciplinary working in the First Year. New pedagogies for encouraging collaborative learning. For example, through the development of new cross-disciplinary modules that foster team working. (ii) Building the student identity as a key aspect of graduate attributes. The main focus here has been on the use of personal development planning profiles. (iii) Balancing the development of graduate attributes for employability and citizenship. This has proved difficult given the current economic recession and the emphasis on employability but, there are attempts to combine both aspects.
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