Engaging Industry in Assessment

Amid calls from governments, business, alumni and students themselves about the need to develop knowledge, skills and attributes for the ‘real’ world during undergraduate study, the Faculty of Business and Law at Victoria University (VU) in Melbourne, Australia, has introduced three new subjects into all Business degrees. Graduate capabilities, also known as generic skills, employability skills and professional literacies, feature in all undergraduate programs in Australian universities and the drivers for their current prominence in higher education curriculum come from many quarters. Certainly, universities are increasingly mindful that graduates’ transition into the professions or the workplace more broadly should be supported by a range of preparatory initiatives in the curriculum. This paper considers one aspect of a curriculum initiative that emerged in response to a Victorian University survey of business practitioners, academic staff in the Business faculty and VU Business alumni; namely, how to engage industry in the development, delivery and evaluation of business curriculu