Dr Diana Pritchard (Centre for Learning Excellence) University of Bedfordshire

Graduate Impact Statements (GIS) are used to describe degree what a does Used as course descriptor from Section 4 of the HEAR. In 4.2 (Information on the contents and results gained)

 Widening Participation institution  Students invest for social mobility  Uni aims to “transform lives” & improve graduate employability  HEAR central to employability strategy University of Bedfordshire

 More for students, than employers ◦ As formative document (personal/prof dev) ◦ As focus for academic/student tutorials ◦ As aide memoire ◦ SMEs typical employers and as yet limited demand for HEAR  One of several key instruments to shift culture ◦ To reiterate relevance of course learning for world of work ◦ Value to highlight importance of other transferable and soft skills ◦ Promotes awareness of importance of seeing value of degree from non-academic perspective University of Bedfordshire

 Encapsulate immediate impact of graduates on organisation  Engage employers, students and academics with the relevance and connection between a course and the future  Provide vehicle to develop conversations about content and purpose, to articulate reasons and currency  Embrace the need for HE to articulate its value externally as well as internally  Are tricky to construct… require moving from outcome- based language to one that articulates for defined but generalised employment context. University of Bedfordshire

How course is designed to develop graduates who are able to: 1. Apply subject knowledge & understanding (subject specific) 2. Work with others in ways important to field (professional skills related to field) 3. Demonstrate enterprise (personal skills) Should be <50 words each one. University of Bedfordshire

Criminology The course has been designed to develop graduates who are able to: 1. Apply knowledge of offending behaviours and solutions and recognise and evaluate the values and practices of key agencies within the criminal justice system in the UK and beyond. 2. Work collaboratively in multicultural teams to understand problems and responses from distinct social and institutional perspectives. 3. Apply initiative to identify and evaluate appropriate responses based on relevant research and evidence.

 Language was typically too academic, not practical enough  Need to be articulated from perspective of an employer  Would benefit by getting course teams from other subject areas to articulate  Course teams could benefit from being provided with list from sources, e.g. CBI, which report graduate attributes required by employers  The process of devising the GIS is a valuable way to promote understanding of applied relevance of courses. University of Bedfordshire