Graduates for the 21st Century – Integrating the Enhancement Themes

Philip Winn

University of Strathclyde

Graduates for the 21st Century: what are we doing?

At the heart of this Theme is consolidation of, and reflection on, the work of the Enhancement Theme programme – all Themes and projects started since 2003. The goal of integrating their outcomes relies on updating and refreshing the material that was produced previously.

Graduates for the 21st Century: what are we doing?

Institutional; Areas of shared interest; Sectoral

Teams – all assembled and working

Students – representation on (most) teams

Money – it’s being spent: events, staff, projects, online

Graduates for the 21st Century: what are we doing?

Institutional; Areas of shared interest; Sectoral

Auditing – previous engagements

Linking & integrating – assessment in the first year

Strategic redevelopments – in many HEIs at the moment

Graduate attributes – and curriculum design

Graduates for the 21st Century: what are we doing?

Institutional; Areas of shared interest; Sectoral

Implementation – how to articulate GAs?

Integration – the graduate as the end point

Engagement & progression – from day one

Transitions – heterogeneity of intake; level-to-level

Graduates for the 21st Century: what are we doing?

Institutional; Areas of shared interest; Sectoral

Research-Teaching Linkages: Vicky Gunn, Glasgow

The First Year: James Moir, Abertay Dundee

Assessment & Integrative Assessment: David Nicol, Strathclyde

Employability: Vicky Gunn, Glasgow

Responding to Student Needs: Margaret Harris, Aberdeen

Graduates for 21st Century: what are we doing?

Institutional; Areas of shared interest; Sectoral

Review – David Lines, to help us get started

Synopsis – Dai Hounsell, to help us conclude

Graduates for the 21st Century: what are we doing?

Institutional; Areas of shared interest; Sectoral

Graduates for the 21st Century: what are we doing?

Institutional; Areas of shared interest; Sectoral

Cross Scotland seminar series

Outwith the ETC, these begin in October – invitations are out

• Professor John Haldane

“Research consumes much time and money that could be better spent on teaching students”

• Is the impetus to research diminishing … ?

No – the research agenda in HEIs is a given

Graduates for the 21st Century: pressure … from research

Graduates for the 21st Century: pressure … on time

Surveys: NSS, I-Grad, PRES, PTES, in-house …

Legislation: Visas, Disclosure Scotland, Health & Safety at Work, COSHH, Risk assessment, Ethical review …

The REF: Prep, submit, debrief, prep, submit, debrief …

SFC / QEF: ELIR and internal subject review, HESA data, TRAC & FEC …

Graduates for the 21st Century: pressure … from Government

Graduates for the 21st Century: pressure … from Government

Higher Ambitions – six elements

1. Access – context, flexible delivery, employability, business

5. Engagement – internationalization, e-learning, RDAs, languages

2. Economic recovery and growth – skills, PG provision

3. Research capacity & economic impact – business, consolidate

4. Teaching excellence – information on programmes, externals

Higher Ambitions – the sixth element

6. Maintain excellence with tighter financial constraints –

Benign financial climate cannot continue; diverse funding streams; strategic direction of funding by Government – redistribution, no new money; Universities need to control costs; variable fees.

Graduates for the 21st Century: pressure … from Government

"In future the burden of financing higher education's diversity of excellence will need to be more equitably shared between employers, the taxpayer, and individuals"

Graduates for the 21st Century: pressure … and us

Enhancement Themes must:

- publish digestible material of relevance and utility

- ease pressure on time: “not another initiative”

- help us work with tighter budgets: outputs must be VfM

This isn’t very uplifting …

Graduates for the 21st Century: some optimism

Can we fix it? – Yes we can

Enhancement Themes must:

- publish digestible material of relevance and utility

- ease pressure on time: “not another initiative”

- help us work with tighter budgets: it must be VfM

End