C/4.3 Graduate capabilities

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4.3.1 Policy principles
4.3.2 Policy outcomes
4.3.3 Graduate capabilities
4.3.4 Postgraduate capabilities
4.3.5 Implementation and monitoring
4.3.6 Electronic portfolio
Related Documents
Modification History

4.3.1 Policy principles

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 is therefore committed to the following principles for graduate capabilities:

• Each graduate from an undergraduate or postgraduate degree is expected to 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/4.3.3 below
• All postgraduate courses will enable students to extend their graduate capability development beyond the level expected for an undergraduate degree as outlined in C/4.3.4 below.

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4.3.2 Policy outcomes

This policy is intended to:

• articulate the graduate capabilities which should be common to QUT undergraduate, postgraduate and research courses
• provide a framework for graduate capabilities at QUT
• provide faculties with guidance on the implementation of graduate capabilities within courses.

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4.3.3 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 productively.

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4.3.4 Postgraduate capabilities

It is recognised that postgraduate awards range from graduate certificate to doctorate levels (C/3.2) and that students in postgraduate courses are likely to have varied backgrounds in terms of prior capability development. Consequently postgraduate courses may be designed to place emphasis on selected graduate capabilities according to the level and purpose of the award, or may require the development of capabilities other than those specifically described in this policy.

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 and the award level.

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/4.3.3 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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4.3.5 Implementation and monitoring

The University recognises that graduate capabilities are ideally articulated and assessed within a discipline context. Appropriate curriculum design, in the context of discipline knowledge, provides the foundation for the development of graduate capabilities at QUT (C/4.2) as part of the learning outcomes of QUT courses. Requirements for implementation and monitoring, and responsibilities of faculties are provided in the Protocols: Graduate capabilities on the Learning and Teaching Unit website.

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4.3.6 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 admission 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 QUT Student ePortfolio website.

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Related Documents

Protocols: Graduate Capabilities

Research Capabilities Resources Catalogue

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Modification History

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