Table 3

Overview of scoped data

IDTypeYearAuthorPublisherMain points
1Journal article2003 YoungCarfaxCompares the national qualifications frameworks of several nations, noting that the AQF is especially “weak” – it has little power to influence the practice of education without institutional collaboration
2Conference Paper2005 Sargison et al.University of QueenslandA pilot usage of an ePortfolio tool throughout a university unit showed an increased insight and demonstration into the graduate attributes of the university as perceived by staff, though student awareness levels remained neutral
3Conference Paper2005 Cranney et al.UniServe ScienceDiscusses the implementation of a “graduate attributes portfolio” into a course at a university, showing that students found it useful for identifying their employability skills and communicating them to employers
4Conference Paper2008 MuldoonPearson EducationDiscusses certification of extra-curricular activities at a university as a framework to develop graduate attributes, emphasising intercultural communication and personal development in university settings
5Conference Paper2008 Nagarajan and EdwardsAustralian Computer SocietyExplores non-technical work experiences of Australian IT graduates. Research demonstrates major challenges and gaps that exist in integrating technical knowledge with workplace expectations for IT graduates
6Conference Paper2008 OliverAustralian Universities Quality Agency (“AUQA”)Highlights the importance of aligning graduate attributes with industry demands through stakeholder feedback, curriculum mapping, and work-integrated learning
Advocates for building teaching staff capacity, fostering collaboration with industry, and incorporating real-world scenarios to enhance work-readiness
7Journal Article2009 Green et al.RoutledgeGraduate attributes are conceptually unclear and it is difficult to integrate skills education into modern tertiary education institutions. Argues that skills education would require substantial institutional investment, including from government stakeholders
8Journal Article2009 Nair et al.Taylor & FrancisProposes re-engineering graduate skills through a case study approach, emphasising the importance of aligning education outcomes with industry requirements
9Book chapter2010 McInnisSpringerRecognises the role of the Australian Qualifications Framework (“AQF”) in the national strategy for lifelong learning
10Conference Paper2010 Oliver et al.AUQAIntroduces the Graduate Employability Indicators (GEI) to capture broader stakeholder perspectives on the achievement and importance of employability attributes
11Journal Article2011 Oliver et al. Emphasises the importance of key capabilities. However, employers and academics stress the need for better demonstration of these skills by new graduates, recommending improvements through authentic assessments and clearer identification of curriculum-developed capabilities
12Journal Article2012 DonleavyEmerald PublishingExamines how the graduate attribute frameworks of various Australian universities align to TEQSA accreditation requirements, finding that graduate attributes tend to be “confus[ing] and ineffective …” as a consequence of a conflict between training “citizenship, society and ethics” and managing employment-based outcomes
13Journal Article2012 Jackson and ChapmanSociety for Research in Higher Education (SRHE)Australian business graduates have similar graduate attributes to those in the UK, although Australian academics studied focus on cognitive skills and less on social skills than their UK counterparts
14Journal Article2013 Thomas et al.Cambridge University PressGraduate attributes have been developed to address the needs of industry. Incorporation of graduate attributes into curricula has been difficult and slow. Industry was surveyed on the non-technical skills in most demand and still reported that university graduates are not well-prepared for entry into industry
15Book Chapter2013 Sadler et al.Sense PublishersDiscusses the assessment of graduate attributes, embracing the subjective nature of it and empowering assessment via psychometric methods, as these qualities are often psychological constructs
16Journal Article2014 Nagarajan and Edwards Graduate attributes are often seen more as a compliance tool than a focus for teaching and learning in curriculum. Discipline-specific skills are often not embedded in an institution’s overall graduate attributes
17Conference Paper2015 Bennett et al.Higher Education Research and Development Society of Australasia (HERDSA)University graduates are not gaining the graduate attributes that employers are looking for within their education, and interventions can be developed within their institutions to account for this
18Journal Article2016 Hill et al.RoutledgeBrief overview of graduate attribute program development in higher education institutions which establishes the contemporary research context
19Journal Article2016 Sandri et al.CarfaxExplores the use of vignettes as a type of assessment method of graduate attributes
20Journal Article2017 Jorre de St Jorre and OliverHERDSAExamines a case study where graduate capabilities were renamed as graduate learning outcomes. Study found that these were still very generic and a greater context to the wider employability discussion and an ability to assess them would be beneficial
21Journal Article2017 Sarkar et al.University of SydneyDiscusses an intervention in the form of a workshop held within a university faculty to explore the topic of skills and graduate employability, as well as student preparedness. The workshop was well-received by students who felt it was a more effective way of communicating the skills-employability nexus
22Journal Article2018 Oliver and Jorre de St JorreRoutledgeGraduate attribute frameworks are poorly communicated to the public, especially students. Institutional data collection practices do not align with graduate attribute frameworks, resulting in poor quality data available regarding the efficiency of these programs. Recommends actions to align attributes with future employment needs, including explicit assessment, contextualising and communicating attributes at the course level, and regularly updating attributes to remain relevant in a rapidly changing environment
23Journal Article2018 Cook, P.Berghahn BooksExamines the graduate attribute agenda of Australian universities. Finds that graduate attribute frameworks tend to focus on job-related outcomes of education and find little support within academic curriculum design as a consequence
24Book chapter2021 NaqviIGIGraduate qualities are not linked to curriculum (including assessments) in individual university subjects
25Journal article2021 Hammer et al.RoutledgeAustralian universities conceptualise graduate attributes as outside of broader outcome-based initiatives
26Journal Article2022 Cook, E.Deakin UniversityIdentifies significant issues with how graduate attribute frameworks are commonly deployed, including: the reduction of university education to job training, the unclear relation between graduate attributes and employability, the weak integration of graduate attribute frameworks into curriculum, and the conflict between graduate attributes as “generic” and “specific” and teachable separate from disciplinary curricula
27Book chapter2023 Bean et al. in Dawkins et al.Melbourne University PressRecommends a national “platform infrastructure to define and connect skills and capabilities” with “rich skill descriptors” and a “framework for assessment”
28Journal Article2023 Gouda-Vossos et al.Open Access Publishing AssociationDiscusses an intervention in the form of a capstone style, for-credit elective career development module, which addresses the skills gap, through developing transferable skills, and awareness of those skills required by employers for students in STEM. The module positively impacted student self-perceived employability, with the greatest impact in the areas of “awareness of opportunity”, “perceptions of future success”, and “confidence in skills”
29Survey (n = 86)2024n/an/aMajority of respondents have not heard of the “Graduate Qualities/Attributes” of their institution
Majority of respondents believe that university education has prepared them for the workforce at most “moderately well”
Qualities in the areas of disciplinary expertise, critical thinking/problem solving, and oral/written communication were commonly considered relevant
Students within technical disciplines struggled to connect socially-oriented skills to their education
Students feel they are insufficiently guided in their skills education, and feel they identify their soft skills absent of institutional support or recognition
Students feel that soft skills are valued by employers, and want more support to develop them from their institutions
30Expert Interview 12024Evans, MPersonal communicationGraduate quality framework at (University) is intended to develop skills and capabilities to support work and career readiness
Students struggle to identify their skills and capabilities, and this leads them to have a lower ability to adapt to different working contexts after graduation
“Adaptability” is recognised as the most critical soft skill, and one which most others support in some part
Graduate quality frameworks need to be highly adaptable to changing circumstances, especially changes in industry
31Expert Interview 22024Rampe, M and Saddiqui, SPersonal communication(University) does not use a graduate quality framework in their curriculum design process, and interviewee believed that this made course learning outcomes less clear
Graduate qualities are difficult to communicate by graduates to employers, largely as a result of employers having little to no guidance on their meaning
It is difficult to integrate soft skills education into curriculum design as they are inherently complex to measure, therefore it is not feasible to validate their acquisition through assessment
Students show interest in an approach to soft skills education that lets them decide which skills they want to focus on
32Expert Interview 32024Pardy, KPersonal communicationWhile universities tend to be efficient at developing student’s graduate qualities, they struggle to instil a sense among students of how these qualities are developing
The language used in graduate qualities frameworks can be difficult to parse for students early in their education, leading them to only understand the purpose of the framework closer to graduation
Graduate quality frameworks tend to be outdated and need “reinterpretation” for a contemporary context of employment and education
Degree of integration of graduate quality framework relatively consistent between faculties and programs
33Expert Interview 42024AnonymousPersonal communicationInternational students feel especially unsupported by their universities in communicating skills to employers, alongside further issues that complicate their employment in the Australian workforce
While extracurricular activities, such as internships, have an outsized impact on graduate outcomes, these are primarily being utilised by students from higher socio-economic backgrounds who would nevertheless have had largely positive outcomes. Students with greater need for career support tend not to have the resources to engage with it
Students are not comfortable communicating their skills to employers. More collaboration between academic and career-supporting departments are needed in Australian universities
34Expert Interview 52024AnonymousPersonal communicationGraduate qualities at (university) are aligned to accreditation requirements, meaning they are limited in scope by what learning outcomes are expected at the regulatory level. This allows (university) a relatively strong ability to validate the success of their graduate quality framework, as audits can be held alongside regulatory data collection
Students rarely engage with information about programs before adopting them, causing them to have little comprehension of how graduate qualities are developed early in their educational pathway
New developments in curriculum design at (university) more effectively communicate to students about key graduate qualities such as critical thinking
35Industry Report2024HennessyPersonal communicationThere is considerable commonality in the articulation of graduate qualities/attributes across higher education institutions in Australia. In some instances, almost a uniformity for attributes such as problem solving/critical thinking, communication, and lifelong learning/ongoing inquiry. Refer Table 5 in the Discussion section of this paper
36Government Submission2024 Learning Creates AustraliaLearning Creates AustraliaA co-design approach to designing a national skills taxonomy (integral to an NSP) is advocated for in response to a Consultation by national agency Jobs and Skills Australia
37Government Submission2024 Universities AustraliaUniversities AustraliaSupports the establishment of a national taxonomy of skills (integral to an NSP) which “gives learners, workers, and employers an understanding of the skills they have … in a format … most appropriate to their needs.”
38Conference Paper2024 KittoUMAP 2024Analyses the current context of skills passports internationally, finding that they are barely differentiated from “ePortfolio” solutions such as LinkedIn. Argues that future skills passport development will need to account for data aggregation from diverse sources and be portable across a variety of locations and contexts to be truly successful, proposing some solutions to these challenges
39Journal Article2024 Geertshuis et al.RoutledgeFocuses on the teaching of generic capabilities and leans into classic theories to propose that for greater success in this regard, students need to be enthused, have the chance to explore, extend themselves, and exhibit their capabilities
Source(s): Table by authors
[ViewLarge]
This Feature Is Available To Subscribers Only

or Create an Account

Close Modal
Close Modal