Integral vision: a multi-perspective approach to the recognition of graduate attributes

The increasing focus of universities on employability is stimulating debates about the purpose of higher education. In this article, we consider what attributes society will demand from graduates in the future. We use Wilber's integral theory to tease out some of the issues in the current conceptualisation of graduate attributes and argue that we need to move away from the current emphasis on skills for jobs and individual, material betterment toward a more spiritual and world orientation. Education for the future needs to focus on an agenda of personal responsibility and on individual and social interior attributes and to move away from its present ‘exterior systems’ focus. Graduate attributes need to address levels of concern that rise through the self and the social toward the welfare of the whole planet.