Through student eyes: graduate attributes in the economics and finance curriculum

This lecture, organised by the Centre for International, Language and Teacher Education Research (CILTER), will be presented by Dr Kulnicha Meechaiyo, a Lecturer (Education-Focused) at the University of St Andrews Business School. She researches corporate finance and financial economics, and also explores pedagogy, particularly teaching innovation and graduate attributes. Her work aims to connect academic research with practical approaches that improve student learning and outcomes.

Her team used self-reported student data on graduate attributes from more than 80 modules across three semesters in the School of Economics and Finance at St Andrews. The data are generated within the end of semester module evaluation questionnaires which ask students to identify the five graduate attributes they have enhanced the most within each of their modules. Students select from a list of 20 attributes introduced by the University in 2021.

Overall, across the programmes, the results show the most frequently reported attributes are research skills and problem solving, numeracy, technical and specialist academic skills and disciplinary knowledge, organisation and written communication. However, there are variations in this pattern across levels of study and programmes both in terms of the mix of attributes and the dispersion of student responses. In particular, the results show significant differences in the attribute profile for specific modules. These departures can be accounted for chiefly in terms of syllabus content, learning tools, forms of assessment and pedagogy.