Skills, Attributes, Literacies, and Capabilities: Developing Our Students at Every Level

Abstract

This Special Issue engages with the concept of ‘graduateness’ across Higher Education by looking at the skills, attributes, literacies, capabilities, and capacities we seek to foster and develop amongst those whom we teach. This discussion ranges from papers on pre-entry, through transition-in and undergraduate student skill enhancement, to developing academic colleagues’ teaching proficiencies and innovation in curricula. The challenge faced by contributing authors was to conceptualise the development of their students’ capabilities and capacities in the broadest and most practical senses. In the context of the global response of Higher Education to the COVID-19 pandemic, which has dramatically impacted the rate of change in teaching practice within institutions, but often without time, distance, and space for critical reflection, we provide space though a process of considered analysis and evaluation of practices, to consider what has worked, what has not worked, and what would benefit us to take forward. In so doing, we highlight several key themes that emerge: graduateness and employability; literacies and skills; access for all; and curricula design for skills development.