Towards graduateness: Exploring academic intellectual development in university master’s students

Our research aims to contribute to the body of knowledge on graduateness by proposing a model that explicates the expected level performance of graduates. In this study, the model is elaborated for 3 graduateness domains: reflective thinking, scholarship, and moral citizenship. We used data on students’ perceived abilities in these domains that were collected at both the beginning and end of 1-year master’s programmes in 3 faculties at a research-intensive university. The model appears to be suitable for investigating students’ academic intellectual development. Not all students appeared to achieve the expected level of graduateness by the end of the master’s programme. However, the results revealed an increase in the proportion of students meeting the thresholds for graduateness. The students’ reports reveal growth in reflective thinking and scholarship during the master’s programme