Evaluating Graduate Student Outcomes: Working Towards Valid Measurement & Processes

This multi-part project examines the outcomes of getting a bachelor degree in light of The University of Auckland Graduate Student Profile. Part 1 (funded by the Vice-Chancellor’s Strategic Development Fund). This completed part of the project (Grays & Brown) surveyed incoming students in 2014 and 2015 to establish whether there were statistically significant changes in self-reported attitudes and beliefs around curiosity, openness, and love of learning. As part of that project a literature review on the purpose of higher education was prepared and presented at AERA 2014 (Chan, Brown, & Ludlow). Part 2. A second strand (Warrender, Cooper-Thomas, & Brown) involved multi-method evaluation of how students develop the various attributes as they go through their degrees. Part 3. Professor Brown is a collaborator with an AKO Aotearoa funded project (2017-2019), Enhancing future employability through tertiary education, AKO National Project Fund. The project is led by Prof. Susan Geertshuis (PI), Dr. Rob Wass (Otago), Tim Watts (NZAGE), Dr. Barbara Kensington-Miller & Dr. Sean Sturm (UoA). Part 4. Prof. Brown and Mark Slade (MEd thesis student) are using the research inventories developed in Part 1 with students at a university preparatory program. Collaborators interested in further aspects of this project are invited to approach Prof. Brown (gt.brown@auckland.ac.nz).