Towards integrated graduate skills for UK computing science students

In preparing computer science students for industry, degree content often focuses on technical skills such as programming. Such skills are essential for a successful post-study career in industry and is popular with students. However, industry notes that students are often limited in what can be referred to as graduate attributes or transferable skills. Such skills include effective teamwork, communication, and critical thinking, among others. Computing science students can also struggle to identify the value in these skills. To address this gap, it is proposed graduate attributes are incorporated into summatively assessed coursework alongside essential technical skills. The overall aim is to develop a framework for computing science educators which will allow them to incorporate such skills more explicitly through assessment. As an initial step, this paper presents a review of graduate attributes from Russell Group Universities to identify common themes. These skills are summarised with an initial proposal for how some of the most common attributes could be incorporated into coursework assessment.