Mapping character and learning gain in higher education: the development of a qualitative instrument

Traditionally outcome-focused higher education tends to prioritise cognitive outcomes, with little research investigating a holistic understanding of learning gain. In learning gain research, changes in students’ character—how students develop as a person, an academic, and a citizen during their undergraduate degree—remain underexplored, and a comprehensive instrument to assess character growth has yet to be developed. This paper presents a qualitative instrument for eliciting and analysing undergraduate students’ Intellectual, Performance, and Civic (IPC) learning gain by asking them narrative and targeted questions about their character development during university training. Narrative interviewing elicits personal stories, capturing how individuals construct meaning, experiences, and development over time. Conducted with 83 students across disciplines and study years at Dutch universities, the study demonstrates how targeted questions prompt students to articulate valued qualities, while narrative questions elicit personal stories that reveal developmental pathways and meaning-making processes. Together, these methods generate rich insights into how students perceive their character growth. The instrument provides researchers, educators, and policymakers with an instrument to map and understand students’ valued character qualities, trace students’ development, and identify influential experiences that go beyond cognitive outcomes.