Learning & Teaching

The Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences provides excellence and innovation in teaching, research and community service in the health sciences field.

Graduate Attributes

The University of Adelaide is a research-intensive university that seeks to develop graduates of international distinction by providing high quality education. The University defines the philosophy underpinning its teaching programs through the Graduate Attributes. These describe the qualities, knowledge and capabilities that students are encouraged to take responsibility for developing throughout their studies at the University. The Graduate Attributes are not a list of skills to be mastered; rather, they encapsulate for both students and the wider community the defining characteristics of a student's university degree program (s), and describe a set of characteristics that are designed to be transferable beyond the particular disciplinary context in which they have been developed. While Graduate Attributes are fostered in the context of the curriculum, they are also developed within the total university experiences as they encourage students to reflect on the broader purpose of their university education.

• 2. Critical thinking and problem solving
  • includes development of an ability to deal with uncertainty
• 3. Team work and communication skills
  • developed from, with, and via the Small Group Discovery Experiences and clinical placement opportunities
  • developed through a focus on interdisciplinary models of learning and research
• 4. Career and leadership readiness
  • commitment to excellence
  • expectation of future roles in teaching/development of others
• 5. Intercultural and ethical competency
  • demonstrated by study abroad and through an understanding of Indigenous health knowledge and of societal changes including impacts of an ageing population
• 6. Self-awareness and emotional intelligence
  • commitment to compassion and caring with kindness
  • acceptance of ongoing critical self-appraisal and review of performance
  • awareness of contribution to current and future communities
  • development of resilience

The Faculty's learning and teaching initiatives develop highly skilled professionals who display compassion and competence in their chosen careers and the highest standards of integrity and ethical behaviour. Learning and teaching are core activities in the Faculty and our primary goals are:

• Provide a distinctive learning experience of high quality for our students, and to produce graduates whose knowledge and attributes enable then to have significant impact within their communities.
• Ensure that the University of Adelaide is regarded as the University of first choice for students through excellent program offerings, innovative delivery and high quality supervision of research, and the provision of quality student administration and support services.

The Faculty values the diverse learning community of students preparing for a range of careers in the Faculty and acknowledges that each student engages in learning in different ways based on their background educational experiences and their socio-cultural identity.

We value this diversity and strive to shape our teaching to be responsive to individual differences through state of the art pedagogies, flexible approaches to course delivery and technologically enhanced learning opportunities.