Developing professional researchers: research students’ graduate attributes

The impetus to broaden the scope of research education is not new. Since the 1970s, concern has been expressed about the suitability of research education as preparation for a research career outside academe. Universities have been criticized for producing over-specialized research graduates, who struggle to apply their expertise to new workplace problems and agendas. These concerns have been heightened by the demands of the knowledge economy. One approach that may begin to address these concerns is to design a systematic program to develop research students’ graduate attributes. While much attention has focused on developing undergraduate generic attributes, it is only recently that universities and governments have sought to identify and develop research higher degree students’ graduate attributes. This article seeks to explore the development of a research student portfolio process (called RSVP), which was originally developed in the Advanced Wastewater Management Centre (AWMC), and subsequently modified and applied across an Australian research-intensive university.