Impact of tertiary studies on development of students´ generic competencies

The present paper examines how generic competencies of students had developed in two-year tertiary studies in Hong Kong. A total of 1376 freshmen and 570 graduates from the same cohort of studies in 2010-12 had completed self-assessment questionnaires which were used to analyse the progress in their 14 generic competencies. The findings indicate that most generic competencies among graduates had generally improved compared to their freshmen year. However, gender difference was observed as male scored significantly higher in most generic competencies whilst such variances were reduced by the time they graduated.