Smoke and mirrors: Graduate attributes and the implications for student engagement in higher education

Discussions of student engagement have gained prominence in universities nationally and internationally in recent years. Simultaneously, statements of graduate attributes have become near ubiquitous for Australian universities. To date, however, there is limited understanding of how the two are linked. Embedding graduate attributes into the curriculum has been ad hoc,and Hughes and Barrie (2010) describe the process as sporadic, patchy and lumpy. There has been little exploration of the links or potential links between the intended curriculum (as evidenced by institutional statements of graduate attributes), the enacted curriculum (as graduate attributes are taught within the disciplines and in everyday classroom teaching) and the experienced curriculum (what the student actually encounters) (Marsh andWillis, 2007). As a consequence, the impact of graduate attributes on the student experience is unclear. Drawing on data from 39 Australian universities over the past 15 years, this chapter examines the relationship between graduate attributes, curriculum development and student engagement. It offers an overview of the intended curriculum of the Australian higher education sector in the 1990s, the early 2000s and the late 2000s and highlights the most important themes andchanges evident over this timespan.