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Despite renewed academic interest in virtue ethics and character education, institutions of higher education have largely neglected the character education of university students. This article seeks to make 2 contributions to the theory and practice of character education within the university, with a particular focus on postgraduate students. First, it provides an accessible synthesis of recent research in philosophy, psychology, and education to advance an Aristotelian model of character education and identify 7 strategies of character development: (1) habituation through practice, (2) reflection on personal experience, (3) engagement with virtuous exemplars, (4) dialogue that increases virtue literacy, (5) awareness of situational variables, (6) moral reminders, and (7) friendships of mutual accountability. Second, in the discussion of each strategy, it supplies examples from a case study of the Oxford Global Leadership Initiative to show how the strategy can be integrated into a research-based, practical program for postgraduate character development. By providing both a theoretical framework and practical examples, this article seeks to offer guidance for educators who aspire to develop character education programs in their institutional contexts.
The purpose of our examination is not to know what virtue is, but to become good....
-Aristotle (1999, 1103b27-30)
EDUCATING CHARACTER IN POSTGRADUATES
Despite renewed academic interest in virtue ethics and character development, institutions of higher education have largely avoided intentional efforts to form the character of university students.1 Most character education programs focus on primary and secondary students, leaving university students without sufficient support to negotiate a crucial time in their moral development. This article seeks to address this gap by focusing on the character education of postgraduate students pursuing advanced academic or professional degrees. For many students, postgraduate education marks a time when they are beginning careers, learning new skills, and facing unexpected challenges in integrating their personal values with the values and expectations of their professions. These challenges are all the more significant during "emerging adulthood," the stage of life between adolescence and adulthood-usually between ages 18 and 29-when many postgraduates typically begin advanced degrees (see Arnett, 2000, 2014a, 2014b). Psychologists have identified emerging adulthood as "a time of great instability," perhaps even "the most unstable stage of the life span" (Arnett, 2014b, p. 158). Because emerging adults are marrying and having children later, holding...