University plans to make its students model graduates

DUBLIN CITY University is seeking to instill employer-friendly “attributes” in graduates. The university has identified six characteristics that it believes will prepare graduates for “work in the 21st century”.

The model graduate will be “creative and enterprising, committed to continuous learning, solution-oriented, effective communicators, globally engaged and active leaders”, the university says.

The Generation 21 plan, to begin next week with the start of term, is “a recognition that the world of employment is looking for a more rounded graduate”, DCU president Prof Brian MacCraith said.

It will “change the way the university prepares and shapes graduates for life and work in the 21st century”, the university explained in a statement .

The move may not sit well with traditional educationalists. However, Prof MacCraith said the end of the “job for life” meant graduates had to be ready for “lifetime employability” .

“It’s our responsibility to ensure we’ve done all we can to make sure they are developing the attributes that we know employers want today,” he said.

In order to achieve this the university will try to develop skills that it says underpin the attributes, such as digital intelligence and ethical standards.

This will be done both inside and outside the lecture theatre and progress will be monitored, the university says.

To that aim it has reviewed over 2,500 of its modules to map the outcomes from each programme and identify gaps.

Each student will have an electronic portfolio to monitor their learning and use to show employers a “validated record of personal development”, and “if the portfolio is blank that tells its own story”, Prof MacCraith said.

To develop entrepreneurship, for example, initiatives such as campus business plan competitions and bringing role models to speak to students will be introduced, Prof MacCraith said.

He acknowledged that not all graduates would emerge entrepreneurs because of an “innate spectrum of abilities”. It “can instil in them the concept of enterprise and taking a risk”, he said.

Prof MacCraith said a similar approach could be taken in reform of first and second-level education.

John Hennessy, chairman of the the Higher Education Authority, said this philosophy “must become more pervasive” in higher education. Institutions “must play a role” not only in the academic aspect of students “but also other skills - such as leadership and enhanced citizenship”, he said.

Minister for Education Ruairí Quinn congratulated the university for its “vision and foresight” and said ensuring graduates were “relevant and ready for the world they live in” was a “critical part of educational reform”.

Prof MacCraith led the initiative after consultations with employers, staff and students of what they considered important in graduates.

The three graduate skills identified by employers as most important during uncertain economic times were being hard-working, flexible and good communicators, according to a Red C survey of 1,000 employers conducted for DCU last week.