When DCU became the first university in Ireland, in 2011, to announce “graduate attributes” that it wished to inculcate in its students, the response was a mixture of mirth and hostility from traditionalists. No longer was it good enough to be a scholar of the highest order; graduates had to be self-starters, socially minded, business-savvy and all the other things modern employers are looking for.

Well, imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, and University of Limerick is the latest institution to identify qualities of the ideal graduate, while the provost of Trinity College Dublin, Paddy Prendergast, has put "entrepreneurship" centre stage in his vision of the university's future scholar.

The identification of such qualities is not simply about creating the new model student. It is designed to change the nature of teaching and learning, as UL vice-president Prof Paul McCutcheon explains.

“The point about the attributes statement is, while you are here, we aim to push you towards developing the attributes you have. So if you’re inherently a creative thinker, you’re going to be more of a creative thinker when you leave. If you’re a collaborator, then you’re going to be more so; you’re going to be given the opportunity to hone your knack for collaboration while you’re here.”

The attributes will inform the design of programmes in the future, influencing teaching methods, assessment measures and the combination of modules offered.

Different attributes

“It’s about pulling out something that is inherent in the individual. Each person will have different attributes in different ways. Some people will be great critical thinkers but not great collaborators, say. I would hope they are all responsible. The attributes would be demonstrated to different levels of intensity.”

The heavy focus on employability is something UL makes no apology for. Its graduate employment rate was 70 per cent last year, well ahead of the national average of 52 per cent across the sector, according to Higher Education Authority data.

And the focus of graduate attributes, as part of the new Teaching, Learning and Assessment Strategy 2014-18, aims to solidify that. The strategy promotes “engaged learning”, which is all about students taking ownership of their education, says McCutcheon. “We call it ‘engaged learning’ for a deliberate reason. We want to emphasise learning almost more than teaching.”

Part of the strategy is about moving existing features of a UL education centre-stage, including the use of work placements as a “transformative experience that shapes the way students approach the remainder of the academic studies”.

As with TCD, which is publishing its strategic plan this week, UL is under pressure to differentiate itself from other higher education institutions. The HEA has compelled all universities, ITs and other third-level colleges to draw up “compacts” identifying specific targets and growth areas. UL may once have occupied a unique position in the landscape but many of its early initiatives have been copied elsewhere.

Branded as “Ireland’s American university” when it was founded as NIHE Limerick in 1972, it pioneered modulisation, continuous assessment, co-operative education and the focus on employability, “These were very alien to the Irish environment,” says McCutcheon. “You might as well have come from Mars. But higher education is a fast-moving world, so innovation in one institution is very often adapted by other institutions, and many universities that in the past would not have used the language of employability are more actively engaging with it. We aim to keep ahead of the pack.”

Two of its strong points are flexibility and a close relationship with industry, demonstrated recently when UL designed a course in customised software development for General Motors. It was turned around in nine weeks, accredited by the HEA and backed by Springboard funding, with a view to creating 60 jobs at the American company's new plant in Limerick.

Is there a danger, though, that academic standards will slip, or independence will be surrendered, from being too reactive to industry?

“It’s our job to make sure those types of unnecessary or damaging compromises aren’t made but it typically doesn’t happen that way,” says McCutcheon. “First, it’s necessary we hear what employers are saying. They can advise us about what’s good to put into the curriculum, or indeed the modes of teaching. If we were teaching a technology that was out of date, we would like employers to tell us it’s out of date. But equally, my experience is that employers have never asked for things that compromise core academic values; they will respect that. They are business people, and they know ‘this is your domain but here’s what we think you can do, what we’d like you to do’. They will say that things education values, they value also: critical thinking, ability to work independently or being a self-starter, ability to collaborate or engage in teamwork.”

Stressing that UL would never dumb down just to meet an employer’s deadline, he says: “We’d be selling them short and be selling students short if we compromised on standards.”

Build new relationships

The university is not just seeking to deepen its industry links, however. It also wants to build new relationships with civil society and non-governmental organisations for its arts programmes. UL is working with Mary Immaculate College on incorporating that institution's liberal arts modules and the UL's 10 BA courses into a single "Limerick BA". The project, with a target start date in September 2016, seeks to "reduce the number of boxes on the CAO form but also maximise the offering and benefit the students on both campuses".

Another competitive challenge facing UL is the planned creation of technological universities. McCutcheon says “there is an external view we have more of a flavour of being a technological university than others”, even though it has a medical school and other advanced facilities, “but the University of Limerick, given our history, is in no position to cry over developments of this type”. He stresses that it will continue to build on its links with IT Tralee and others.

As for UL’s long-term vision: “The type of institution we see ourselves as is one that is close to industry, or rather close to the real world. That includes business and the professions, the NGO sector, etc. And we do see it as part of our mission to promote economic and social development.”

That mission is captured in the “engaged learning” strategy, which includes plans for a “UL employability statement”. This will be adopted by January to reflect “a commitment to achieving maximum knowledge exchange from the classroom to the workplace”.

Is this a guarantee of a job? “No, but it’s an articulation of how we go about moving our students towards employability,” says McCutcheon. “It’s about consciously articulating our purpose, and reminding ourselves when we are designing teaching programmes that we have an overarching purpose in mind.”

GRADUATE ATTRIBUTES: DCU VERSUS UL

DCU graduate attributes:

• Creative and enterprising
• Solution-oriented
• Effective communicators
• Globally engaged
• Active leaders
• Committed to continuous learning

Branding these attributes under the label Generation 21, DCU says the aim is to “shape our graduates into well-rounded individuals, ready to make an impact on society and on the workforce”.

UL graduate attributes:

• Articulate
• Collaborative
• Responsible
• Creative
• Proactive
• Knowledgeable

In UL’s Engaged Learning strategy, these attributes are placed at the top of a pyramid, supported by such qualities as “imagination” and “reflection” and rooted in “discipline-specific excellence”.