One of the challenges related to learning in higher education is the availability of prerequisite skills from students to succeed in a course. Problems may arise when there is a discrepancy between teachers’ expectations and the level of skills developed by the students during the higher education studies or from secondary education. Additionally, some of these prerequisites fall under the umbrella of transferable skills, abilities which support the effort of education throughout curricula. Courses in higher education may require a certain level of acquisition of these transferable skills, but expectations regarding such acquisition often appear implicitly. In this short study, we explore the challenges related to conflict of expectations for prerequisite skills encountered by teachers and students in higher education. To approach this broad topic, several tracks have been explored. The formal expectations from the faculty, course leaders and/or teachers are expressed through the program curricula and course syllabi. To provide an example of these expectations within engineering science educations the program curricula and course syllabi for the Faculty of Engineering at Lund University (LTH) bachelor infrastructure engineering and the LTH master infrastructure engineering programmes were revised for formal prerequisites. In addition, the corresponding analysis was also conducted with respect to course syllabi for the basic and special admission eligibility courses in secondary education. Furthermore, a qualitative research design to explore teachers’ and students’ perspectives on transferable skills development in higher education was employed, using semi-structured interviews with senior teachers and with students. The findings of this study suggest that the concepts of constructive alignment and responsibility division offer useful keys of interpretation of the described problem. Our analysis indicates that responsibility for developing transferable skills is implicitly distributed across levels in uneven and often invisible ways. Responsibility across these levels remains insufficiently articulated, resulting in irregular and costly absorption.
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