Guide · educational objectives
Programme educational objectives (PEOs) are the goals graduates are expected to reach in their profession a few years after graduation. They describe the graduate in the profession, not the student; they are set with stakeholders and measured with graduate and employer views and objective indicators such as employment. They are not calculated from course grades. Three to five objectives are enough for most programmes.
Concept
| Programme educational objective | Programme outcome | |
|---|---|---|
| Time | A few years after graduation | At graduation |
| Whom does it describe? | The graduate in the profession | The student receiving the diploma |
| What does it tell? | Career and professional goal: what roles they take on, how they develop | Knowledge, skills and competences |
| Who sets it? | The programme, together with stakeholders (employers, graduates, advisory board) | The programme, with the national qualifications framework and accreditation criteria |
| How is it measured? | Graduate and employer views, objective indicators such as employment and postgraduate study | Direct course measurement, supported by surveys |
| Relation to course grades | None: the student has not yet graduated | From the questions that measure the outcome, not from the course grade |
Writing
Examples
| Weak | Reason | Strong |
|---|---|---|
| Our graduates become good engineers. | Not measurable; “good” is vague, with no timeframe or context. | Within the first five years after graduation, our graduates take on project responsibility in an organisation in their field. |
| Students learn ethical values. | It describes the student; this is a programme or course outcome. | Our graduates observe ethical principles in their professional decisions and set an example to those around them. |
| Our graduates become leaders in the sector. | Not realistic for every graduate; it is unclear what is to be observed. | Our graduates take on coordination and communication responsibilities in teamwork. |
| Our programme provides innovative, high-quality education. | It describes the programme; it says nothing about the graduate. | Our graduates continue their professional development through postgraduate study, certificates or in-house programmes. |
Assessment
Objective indicators: information that can be counted from records, such as employment, postgraduate study, certificates and promotion. Employer view: the observation of the graduate's manager; valuable because it is external and independent. Graduate view: the graduate's own assessment; it may be more optimistic than reality.
Survey responses are evaluated anonymously. The response rate and how well respondents represent all graduates are stated alongside the result. A source that cannot be measured is not counted as zero; its absence is stated openly. The result is read together with the trend over the years.
Frequently asked questions
A programme outcome describes the knowledge, skills and competences the student has at graduation; a programme educational objective describes the goals the graduate is expected to reach in the profession a few years after graduation. Programme outcomes serve educational objectives; the two are linked with a matrix.
Three to five objectives are enough for most programmes. Because each objective is measured separately, more objectives mean more measurement work; objectives that are very close should be merged.
No. An educational objective describes life after graduation; because the student has not yet graduated, it cannot be derived from course data. It is measured with graduate and employer surveys and objective indicators such as employment, postgraduate study and certificates.
Objectives are set with stakeholder input and reviewed in the programme's periodic evaluation. Findings from graduate and employer surveys show whether the objectives are still valid.
A single source is weak. The graduate's own view may be optimistic; the employer's view is an external observation; objective indicators are countable evidence. Read together, the three form strong evidence. If the response rate is low and respondents do not represent all graduates, this should be stated alongside the result.
SixBloom links objectives to programme outcomes with a matrix, processes graduate and employer surveys without storing identity information and adds objective indicators as a separate layer. The response rate and representation bias are shown as separate indicators alongside the result; attainment per objective and the trend over the years are reported.
Related: Programme outcome evidence in accreditation · How is programme outcome attainment calculated? · Assessment terms
SixBloom Course Design Studio links objectives to programme outcomes, processes graduate and employer surveys without storing identities and reports attainment per objective over the years.