ABSTRACT
Higher education institutions (HEIs) play an essential role in enhancing and advancing our societies by aspiring to equip graduates with the knowledge, skills, competences, and values they need to succeed not just as expert professionals, but as leaders, innovators, and influencers of positive change. HEIs define profiles, attributes, or capabilities that are intended to encompass a holistic vision for their graduates. Graduate attributes are not always defined by the HEIs alone. Public authorities, accreditation institutes, professional bodies, employer organisations, or other HEI-external stakeholders may require that graduates of a specific discipline are able to demonstrate that they have acquired a given set of knowledge, skills, and competences. The concept of graduate attributes is developed from a competence-based model of higher education with pre-determined goals or competences for programmes, stages in a programme, and individual course modules or units.
