Assessing 'graduate qualities' at the University of South Australia: A case study

Implementation has proceeded by piloting the embedding of the graduate qualities in several sites across the University, and out of this has come a number of issues needing attention. One of the most important is assessment, which frequently shapes the whole learning process. When considering the most effective method/s of assessing graduate qualities a necessary prior step is to identify the purposes of such assessment. This paper uses one of the University's graduate qualities as a case study illustrating how the purposes of assessment at the University of South Australia articulate with its assessment practices.

Higher education in Australia is facing the challenge of refocussing its sights from the local to the international scene. Increasingly the knowledge industry, as well as the commercial and industrial economy, operates globally. As a result our graduates are looking to world wide markets for employment, and we are attracting an increasing number of overseas students who intend to complete the most suitable course regardless of geography. The commitment to internationalisation, incorporated in the University's mission statement, is now is reflected in Graduate Quality 7: 'A graduate of the University of South Australia demonstrates international perspectives as a professional and as a citizen'.

While altering curricula to embed an international perspective in teaching and learning has had some recent attention in Australia, including at the University of South Australia, assessing internationalisation has had less. Key challenges when assessing graduate qualities include: how to assess both internal and external students, the appropriate balance between implicit and explicit assessment, between qualitative and quantitative assessment, the point/s at which assessment should occur and the need for self assessment. Finally, we identify avenues for further investigation as the embedding of graduate qualities in teaching and learning frameworks proceeds.