What Can Graduates Do? The Findings of a Collaborative Project

Describes some of the findings of a two‐year project which investigated learning outcomes in higher education. The project involved three groups of people; academic staff drawn from 15 universities and polytechnics; 750 of their first‐and final‐year students; 250 employers of graduates. The project organized more than 100 workshops, seminars and conferences to discuss the outcomes and to develop a model which could be used by the staff. Over 300 copies of a consultative document were circulated to all higher education institutions and to employers. Overall, the project demonstrated that academic staff described a range of outcomes relating to academic work (knowledge and cognitive skills)and to competences of a general and vocational nature. Students and employers described broadly similar outcomes relating to vocational competences and to personal and social skills.