C/1.4 Graduate capabilities

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1.4.1 Development of capabilities
1.4.2 Graduate capabilities
1.4.3 Postgraduate capabilities
1.4.4 Implementation and monitoring
1.4.5 Electronic portfolio
Modification History

1.4.1 Development of capabilities

QUT is committed to developing graduates who can contribute effectively as citizens, leaders in the wider community, and competent professionals within their chosen discipline. Employers of QUT graduates need to be confident that graduates will demonstrate employment-related skills as well as disciplinary expertise and be capable of dealing effectively with new situations. Graduates, in turn, need to be confident in their understanding and articulation of their capability development, and their preparedness for a challenging and dynamic future.

QUT expects that each graduate from an undergraduate or postgraduate degree will have developed graduate capabilities of a kind and level appropriate to their award. Graduates from an undergraduate degree will demonstrate the graduate capabilities listed in C/1.4.2 below.

All postgraduate courses will enable students to extend their graduate capability development beyond the level expected for an undergraduate degree. It is recognised that students in postgraduate courses are likely to have varied backgrounds in terms of prior capability development, and that particular postgraduate courses may require the development of capabilities other than those listed in C/1.4.2. Additional capabilities expected from graduates of postgraduate programs are outlined in C/1.4.3.

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1.4.2 Graduate capabilities

Every QUT course aims to develop graduates who are able to demonstrate:

• knowledge and skills pertinent to a particular discipline or professional area
  
  encompassing:
• coherent theoretical and practical knowledge in at least one discipline area at the level of entry to a profession
• technological skills appropriate to the discipline

• critical, creative and analytical thinking, and effective problem-solving
  
  including:
• the ability to critique current paradigms and contribute to intellectual inquiry
• the capacity to exhibit creative as well as analytical ways of thinking about questions in at least one discipline
• the ability to identify, define and solve problems in at least one discipline area

• effective communication in a variety of contexts and modes
  
  including:
• effective written and oral communication with discipline specialists and non-specialists and in cross-cultural contexts

• the capacity for life-long learning
  
  including:
  • searching and critically evaluating information from a variety of sources using effective strategies and appropriate technologies

• the ability to work independently and collaboratively
  
  including:
  • managing time and prioritising activities to achieve goals
  • demonstrating the capacity for self-assessment of learning needs and achievements
  • being a cooperative and productive team member or leader

• social and ethical responsibility and an understanding of indigenous and international perspectives
  
  encompassing:
  • active contribution to intellectual, social and cultural activities
  • understanding and appreciation of indigenous perspectives
  • recognition and appreciation of gender, culture and customs in personal and community relations
  • valuing and promoting truth, accuracy, honesty, accountability and the code of practice relevant to the discipline or professional area

• characteristics of self-reliance and leadership
  
  including:
  • the ability to take the initiative, to embrace innovation, and to manage change productive

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1.4.3 Postgraduate capabilities

Postgraduate coursework programs

In postgraduate coursework programs graduate capabilities will most likely be framed with the context of advanced knowledge and understanding in a specialist field of study, professional knowledge and skills in a specialist area of practice and/or engagement within a new field of study.

Postgraduate research programs

QUTs research training objective is to graduate high quality postgraduate research students who meet the needs of industry, government, the professions and the community and who are equipped to undertake leadership roles in those contexts. In addition to the graduate capabilities expected of all QUT graduates (see C/1.4.2 above), capabilities that are regarded as desirable in research graduates include:

• advanced theoretical knowledge and analytical skills, as well as methodological, research design and problem-solving skills in a particular research area
• advanced information processing skills and k nowledge of advanced information technologies and other research technologies
• independence in research planning and execution, consistent with the level of the research degree
• competence in the execution of protocols for research health and safety, ethical conduct and intellectual property
• skills in project management, teamwork, academic writing and oral communication
• awareness of the mechanisms for research results transfer to end-users, scholarly dissemination through publications and presentations, research policy, and research career planning.

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1.4.4 Implementation and monitoring

The University recognises that graduate capabilities are ideally articulated and assessed within a discipline context. Appropriate curriculum design and teaching, in the context of discipline knowledge, provide the foundation for the development of graduate capabilities at QUT, and place the following responsibilities on faculties.

Each faculty will:

• identify the graduate capabilities for each discipline which expand and enhance the University lists above
• develop a graduate capabilities development strategy for each course. The strategy will include a statement of the qualities, skills and knowledge the faculty agrees its students should develop within the individual course. These qualities, skills and knowledge will incorporate the graduate capabilities articulated within this statement.
• map graduate capabilities across each course and advise students explicitly of the capabilities being addressed in each unit
• advise students where within the course the capabilities are assessed (eg core or capstone or other units)
• incorporate graduate capabilities development within the substantive content and learning of each course
• review the use of the Student Capability Profile (SCP) to document activities in courses and units which develop generic capabilities, and encourage students to use the SCP to systematically record and reflect upon learning experiences and activities that illustrate their development of generic skills at QUT
• attempt to identify for students the levels of capability development that they have. A possible model to use is contained within the ATN Generic Capabilities Project Report, at http://www.clt.uts.edu.au/Frameworkforaction.htm (see section headed Qualitative differences in the attainment of a generic capability )

Postgraduate research programs

The University recognises that the embedding of graduate capabilities for postgraduate research programs requires additional processes to those for coursework programs and that the development of generic capabilities in postgraduate research students is a shared responsibility between a supervisor and student.

The Research Students Centre and the Faculty Research Training Coordinators Group will be responsible for developing processes for implementation of graduate capabilities within postgraduate research programs and providing supervisor support and staff development. Faculties will be responsible for ensuring that supervisors undertake the role of facilitating the development of student capabilities through promotion of opportunities for self-development.

The following processes will be put in place:

• a communication plan to raise awareness amongst supervisors and students
• a template to allow an initial assessment of an incoming student's capabilities made by the supervisor and student
• ongoing monitoring of skill and capability development undertaken in the context of the Annual Progress Report
• promotion of student use of the electronic portfolio (see C/1.4.5 below) to provide an exit statement of capabilities and to access the opportunities available to students for self-development in these areas
• workshop activities, provided through the Research Students Centre and the faculties, to assist supervisors and research students in developing a shared responsibility for generic capabilities enhancement
• a process for faculty level comment on the generic capabilities of exiting students to sit alongside the formal examination process, which already provides an evaluation of certain skills and capabilities as evidenced in the thesis.

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1.4.5 Electronic portfolio

The University promotes the use by students of electronic portfolio tools to assist in learning and teaching, in preparation for employment, and to emphasise the development of graduate capabilities. The electronic portfolio is intended to be available to students throughout their period of enrolment and on graduation a student may choose to file their portfolio data on centrally provided storage. Conditions for the retention of such data and provision of storage are available at F/1.6 and TILS website )

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Modification History

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