Abstract:

Efforts to systematically implement graduate attributes across university curricula have received considerable attention in recent years in Egyptian universities and worldwide. Previous research had highlighted a number of factors, embedded in the teaching and learning context, that affected academics’ teaching, learning and assessment of graduate attributes in taught courses. The literature to date show limited success on the factors needed to empower academics to improve their implementation of graduate attributes in taught courses. This paper discusses these factors and suggests that academics’ empowerment is affected by a number of aspects that are unlikely to be resolved unless they are addressed on the university level. Empirical data was collected, using semi-structured interviews, from a purposive sample of academics teaching in different undergraduate programmes of study within the Egyptian university sector. To ensure the validity of the data, more information was collected from the documents that represent the different educational policies and practices implemented in these programmes of study. Through thematic data analysis and the theory of empowerment as a conceptual framework, the study identified the different factors that affected the implementation of graduate attributes in Egyptian undergraduate degree courses.

Keywords:

Academics' empowerment, graduate attributes, Higher Education in Egypt, university education in Egypt.