Developing graduate attributes through participation in undergraduate research conferences |
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Authors: | Jennifer Hill Helen Walkington |
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Institution: | 1. Faculty of Environment and Technology, Department of Geography and Environmental Management, University of the West of England, Bristol, UK;2. Department of Social Sciences, Oxford Brookes University, Oxford, UK |
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Abstract: | Graduate attributes are a framework of skills, attitudes, values and knowledge that graduates should develop by the end of their degree programmes. Adopting a largely qualitative approach and using semi-structured interviews, this paper outlines students’ experiences at a national undergraduate research conference over three years and evidences the graduate attributes developed. The students demonstrated intellectual autonomy, repurposing their work for presentation to a multidisciplinary audience through conversation with and benchmarking against peers. They gained confidence in expressing their identity as researchers and moved towards self-authorship, consciously balancing the contextual nature of their disciplinary knowledge with intra-personally grounded goals and values. |
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Keywords: | Undergraduate research graduate attributes employability conferences self-authorship borderland space |
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