Special session - enhancing graduate attributes through Research-Teaching Linkages

Abstract

Employability has long been a key concern for engineering faculty and educators and the importance of developing transferable skills including communication, time management, teamwork, problem solving and decision making, is now well established. However consensus on how best to develop these skills in graduates is less well established, with difference emerging the relative merits of using stand-alone modules for initial development against embedding in subject-specific modules. Employability is increasingly seen by some as going beyond general skill sets associated with employment to encompassing higher order skills, which can be better characterized as graduate attributes. Participants in this highly interactive special session will be able to explore these and related issues, share examples from their home institution and reflect on their own practices. An innovative extension of the “world café technique, known as dialogue sheets will be used to facilitate discussion. The use of Research-Teaching Linkages to enhance graduate attributes has recently been the focus of one the Quality Assurance Agency (QAA) in Scotland enhancements themes. Key findings and case studies emerging from this theme will be used to set the context for a wider discussion on preparing graduates for the 21st century.