Competence development as perceived by degree and non-degree graduates in Japan: A longitudinal study

SummaryBackground ee programme is believed to prepare graduates with a higher level of competence than their diploma counterparts. However, there have been inconsistent findings reported as to whether or not degree-graduates outperformed those who take diplomas. ives tudy aimed to identify graduatesʹ perceptions of competence development in their first year of employment, and to compare the competence levels of graduates with different educational backgrounds. tudy adopted a longitudinal design. gs tudy has been performed in five hospitals in Japan. ipants panese graduates participated in this study. s lf-assessed competence of the graduates was collected in the 3rd, 6th, 9th, and 12th months of their employment using a survey method. The data were analysed using a linear mixed model. s sults suggested that the graduates perceived their competence to be rapidly growing during the first half of the graduate year, and slowly later. The results also indicated that the graduatesʹ perception of their competence showed a significant variation. The most striking finding of the study was that, on average, the non-degree graduates rated their competence higher than their degree counterparts. sions rrent university orientation on emphasising intellectual and theoretical components of education, with less focus on practical components might have led to the development of lower competence among the BN graduates. A fine balance between theoretical and practical components needs to be established in a university curriculum.