Soft Skills of Students in University: How Do Higher Education Institutes Respond to 21^st Century Skills Demands?

The World Economic Forum has recognized soft skills as a global personal quality of the twenty-first century within the global economy (Soffel, 2016). Gifted and talented students at universities are not necessarily future leaders who can thrive in the challenging global environment. Because most graduates’ soft skills are primarily developed at universities, higher education institutes are expected to support students’ personal growth, preparing them to fit in the twenty-first century’s work context. This study aimed to examine how a subset of 21st-century soft skills are developed in higher education as perceived by gifted students from most health clusters in comparison to other students at academic programs in Saudi Arabia. The researchers investigated students’ perceived mastery level of these skills within a public university across various ability groups, genders, and years of schooling. The collected over four years. Five questionnaires were developed to measure 21st-century soft skills: problem-solving, communication, planning, leading self, and leading others. A total of 834 students from various academic clusters were surveyed: health, science, engineering, and humanities. The findings provided supporting evidence that students’ perception of owning 21st-century soft skills did not fit with university expectations of their mastery level, although these skills had improved slightly throughout students’ university education. Moreover, the findings indicated that there were no significant differences between university students’ perceptions of owning soft skills regarding gender and ability, except in the case of gifted and talented group’s problem-solving ability.