Chapter 7: Christian Higher Education Providers and Graduate Attributes: Token or Purposeful?¹

Australian higher education institutions are required by regulators to have a set of graduate attributes (GAs) that outline the skills and attributes the institution will develop in its students to make a positive difference in their communities. Faith-based higher education institutions will often have a set of GAs that highlight their faith distinctive whilst also providing for the more generic attributes of secular institutions. If the GAs are the key driver in the maintenance of the Christian distinctive it is worthwhile examining “how effective are the GAs in maintaining the Christian distinctive of a Christian higher education provider?” This chapter presents aspects of a project undertaken by a cross-institutional research team from Alphacrucis University College (AC) and Christian Heritage College (CHC). The project sought to discover how well the GAs of each institution are embedded in the organizational culture that fostered the growth and development of students, and the Christian distinctive in a continually changing regulatory and political environment. The research project was conducted from August to December 2020. It used an interpretive grounded theory approach, using document analysis and surveys of students, alumni, and faculty, along with academic governance committee members. The project sought to ascertain the level of ownership of the GAs across the various levels of each institution and consequently how well they were embedded into student learning. The cross-institutional approach allowed for a richness of analysis with similarity of experience shared across the two institutions. The project revealed how GAs can be key in the purposive formation of students through a transformational education approach and this may shed light on some of the differences between Christian and secular higher education approaches. A well-crafted set of GAs embedded into the organizational culture, and intentionally grafted into the curriculum design phase, can help ensure that Christian distinctives of Christian higher education providers (CHEP) can be deliberately and purposely embedded into all aspects of learning while continuing to develop students that can add positively to society and the common good.