Generic graduate attributes : citizens for an uncertain future

Editorial: Over the past two decades the terms generic skills, graduate qualities, generic attributes and core capabilities have become a familiar part of the teaching and learning landscape of higher education. Indeed it seems that there is rarely a higher education teaching and learning conference these days that doesn't have a theme on generic attributes. While generic attributes might at first glance appear to be relatively innocuous and uncontentious outcomes, to which many members of the higher education community can wholeheartedly subscribe, they have their roots in the contested territory of questions as to the nature of knowledge and the nature of a university. A consideration of the implications and nature of the assumptions underpinning such statements is the starting point for this issue.