Graduate attributes

ANU Curriculum Framework and Graduate Attributes

In 2021, ANU released ANU by 2025, a strategic plan with an overarching vision to invest in, and insist on, excellence everywhere and to ensure our student experience is equal to the world’s best.

ANU commenced strategic work on the Curriculum Framework and Graduate Attributes, and both were endorsed by Academic Board in 2022. Students commencing in 2025 will graduate from programs in which the ANU Graduate Attributes are embedded. 

The ANU Graduate Attributes

The ANU Graduate Attributes signal clearly the values of ANU and are distinctive across all degree programs. By 2025, the three Graduate Attributes will be embedded into the disciplinary context of each degree. 

Insight into Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples’ knowledges and Indigenous peoples’ perspectives

To know the true nature of things, ANU graduates acknowledge and understand our history. At ANU, we are committed to knowing our country and learning its rich history. To do this, we recognise and incorporate Indigenous Australian peoples’ diverse languages and knowledges into the fabric of our University and our curriculum. ANU graduates continue to learn from and respect the knowledges and cultures that First Nations peoples have been developing and nurturing on their lands for millennia.

Expertise for Critical Thinking

ANU graduates are critical thinkers, they actively challenge what and how we know the nature of things. They engage in cutting edge debate on topics of relevance and importance to them. They ask judicious questions, design systematic methodologies and use data to analyse, synthesise, extrapolate and predict. ANU graduates demonstrate logical, rational and ethical patterns of reasoning to represent and communicate their understandings. They support their arguments with evidence and pioneer positive change and innovation.

Capability to Employ Discipline-based Knowledge in Transdisciplinary Problem-Solving 

ANU graduates are adept at working with others to understand and creatively address the amorphous, complex problems that face our world. They are capable of critically engaging with—and integrating—diverse discipline-based, stakeholder and Indigenous knowledges for values-driven problem solving. They produce powerful, systemic, transdisciplinary solutions to address problems in local, national and global contexts.

Find out more about the ANU Graduate Attributes, including guidance documents and example programs on the Future of Curriculum Sharepoint page.

The ANU Curriculum Framework

The ANU Curriculum Framework is a set of design principles for undergraduate Bachelor degree programs which:

  • Builds a distinctive ANU experience across all undergraduate programs
  • Creates space for graduate attributes complementary to discipline/area depth
  • Enables collaboration across academic areas/disciplines
  • Encourages flexibility within Flexible Double Degrees (FDD)

The design principles of the Curriculum Framework provide space for programs to situate the unique circumstances of students to draw meaningful connections between their academic pursuits and broader contexts, such as through research, fieldwork and other applied learning experiences, or through enabling functional overlap and flexibility within Flexible Double Degrees where possible.

Find out more about the ANU Curriculum Framework on the Future of Curriculum Sharepoint page. 

 

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