Sub sections:
Implementation Progress
Summary of activities related to Graduate Attributes at UNE to 2009
Introduction of Policy—1998
In 1998 the Vice-Chancellor of the University of New England, Professor Ingrid Moses, recommended to Academic Board that the Teaching and Learning Committee develop a statement of Attributes of a UNE Graduate. The resulting document stated that graduates will be expected to have developed the following range of skills and attributes: Communication skills, Global perspective, Information literacy, Lifelong learning, Problem solving, Social responsibility, Teamwork. The policy was accepted by Academic Board on 27 July 1998 and faculties were asked to include strategies for implementing the Attributes of a UNE Graduate Policy in their Faculty Plans for 1999. An implementation plan was also endorsed in August 1998.
The policy was amended in 2004 and approved by Council 9.12.04.
New and Amended Unit application forms required staff to indicate whether graduate attributes were taught, practiced and assessed.
CUTSD Project
In 1998 a booklet titled Skills for the Future: Reflections of UNE academics was compiled under the leadership of Robyn Muldoon, Academic Skills Coordinator. This booklet outlined the thinking and teaching strategies of a range of academics who were teaching attributes. A second booklet, Skills for the Future: Case Studies from UNE was published in 2000 describing 38 case studies.
Skills for the Future Forum
The forum was convened to assist academics considering ways of implementing the Attributes of a UNE Graduate and a Special Interest Group was formed. The Teaching and Learning Centre facilitated several workshops during 1999–2001.
Workready Scheme for Internal Students
This was approved by Academic Board, 16 October 2000. The scheme provides an opportunity for UNE students to be work ready through a range of strategies including periods of workplace employment. Students can enrol in a Workready unit at 200/300 level in a range of awards.
Faculty of the Sciences Project 2001
In conjunction with the Teaching and Learning Centre this project developed a methodology that allowed levels of attainment to be defined for basic (1st year), intermediate (2nd year) and advanced (3rd and 4th years) levels of student progression within the Bachelor of Natural Resources, Bachelor of Rural Science and Bachelor of Agriculture degrees.
The project provided valuable guidance on processes to employ in mapping graduate attributes and identifying gaps for other groups at UNE.
2003 Faculty Projects through TLC
A number of the projects focused on the implementation and integration of graduate attributes.
2003/04 Teaching Development Grant: Integrating Graduate Attributes into Undergraduate Degrees
The grant was awarded to Dr Mary Notestine and managed by Graduate Attributes Project Officer Lynne Chapman. The aims of the project were to:
- determine to what extent the current teaching of Attributes is strategic, articulated and coordinated between units and across degrees
- undertake an initial audit of selected UNE undergraduate courses/units to identify how graduate skills have been embedded and assessed in these programs; are they addressed explicitly and/or implicitly within units
- detect where gaps exist in the provision of Attributes in a degree program and to provide suggestions as to how these can be incorporated into units/courses
- identify innovative strategies by individual lecturers in providing these skills to students.
The following outcomes were achieved:
- A Graduate Attributes Resource Guide was produced for academic staff with suggestions and guidelines on how to incorporate appropriate teaching and assessment of attributes into their units/courses
- A mechanism for monitoring and maintaining the provision of Graduate Attributes in units and throughout course structure was recommended
- An information leaflet for students on the importance of Graduate Attributes to their future careers and lifelong learning
- The Final Report included several recommendations for future policy implementation including an ePortfolio.
2004/05 Large Teaching Development Grant: Facilitate systematic planning for incorporation of graduate attributes into courses and accurately record graduate attributes data
The grant was awarded to Associate Professor Geoff Hinch and Dr Sarah Stein and managed by Graduate Attributes Coordinator Lynne Chapman. The aims of this project were to:
- increase the quality of students' intended learning outcomes through an incremental approach to the development of graduate attributes across courses
- increase the level of integration of attributes into units and courses by developing an understanding of the role of graduate attributes in teaching and learning and the need for planning across courses
- introduce the concept of interpreting attributes and defining levels of attainment for students in courses or majors where this has not yet occurred
- increase the explicitness (documented) of information for students (e.g. inclusion of learning objectives, guidelines or instruction, assessment marking criteria etc in teaching material in relation to graduate attributes
- improve the quality of recorded data about graduate attribute teaching and learning for UNE's external reporting obligations.
The emphasis was on course review to ensure there was an incremental development pathway for students and to define the attributes and associated levels of attainment in the context of each course. Research into the student perspective of the effectiveness of teaching attributes occurred as part of this project. A final project report was submitted in January 2005 and included recommendations for recording attributes, an ePortfolio and an approach to curriculum mapping for all courses.
A small TDG was awarded to Roger Epworth and Trevor Brown for a similar process in nominated streams of the Bachelor of Commerce and the Bachelor of Science and proved very successful.
2007—2009
A working party under the chairmanship of Lynne Chapman was established by the Academic Board Teaching and Learning Committee to revise the Graduate Attribute Policy and make recommendations on: an approach to student ePortfolios; quality assurance processes; a matrix approach to map graduate attributes at course and unit level incorporating the need for staged development. A recommendation for implementation and mapping attributes was also requested.
A revised policy and set of guidelines was approved by Academic Board 5.10.07. The most significant change was the explicit application of the policy to postgraduate and higher degree research awards.
In August 2008 Lynne Chapman was appointed as graduate attributes coordinator to refine the guidelines and work with course teams on curriculum mapping. A five year implementation plan is to end in 2013. A working party was established in 2009 to finalise UNE's approach to an ePortfolio.