Does Higher Education Teach Students to Think Critically?

There is a discernible and growing gap between the qualifications that a university degree certifies and the actual generic, 21st-century skills students graduate from higher education with. By generic skills, it is meant literacy and critical thinking skills encompassing problem solving, analytic reasoning and communications competency. As automation takes over non- and lower-cognitive tasks in today’s workplace, these generic skills are especially valued but a tertiary degree is a poor indicator of skills level. In the United States, the Council for Aid to Education developed an assessment of generic skills called the CLA+ and carried out testing in six countries between 2016 and 2021. This event provides insights into the main findings and discusses which lessons can be drawn to improve higher education.