The concept of capstone units is gaining currency within the Australian Higher Education system, with a growing focus on enhancing graduate employability and assuring graduate outcomes. The aim of this paper is to report on an 18-month study of undergraduate journalism capstone units in Australian universities. Just over half of the universities in Australia that teach journalism (16 out of 30), embed capstone units in their programmes, and the study, which began in September 2015, is part of part of an Australian Learning and Teaching Fellowship. It is divided into three stages. The first stage involved face-to-face interviews with journalism academics at 16 universities in five States, to discover what type of capstone unit they use, the principles they employ and the skills students need to demonstrate and apply. This data then underwent a validation process. Stage three of the study will develop resources to support journalism educators in the design or redesign of capstone units, especially in the area of agreed principles, standards and best practice.

中文翻译：

---

基于商定的原则和标准的新闻顶点单位

顶点单元的概念在澳大利亚高等教育系统中越来越流行，越来越关注提高毕业生的就业能力和确保毕业生的成果。本文的目的是报告对澳大利亚大学本科新闻专业单元进行的为期 18 个月的研究。澳大利亚超过一半的大学教授新闻学（30 所大学中的 16 所）在其课程中嵌入了顶点单元，这项研究于 2015 年 9 月开始，是澳大利亚学习与教学奖学金的一部分。它分为三个阶段。第一阶段包括对五个州 16 所大学的新闻学者进行面对面采访，以了解他们使用哪种类型的顶点单元、他们采用的原则以及学生需要展示和应用的技能。然后这些数据经历了验证过程。该研究的第三阶段将开发资源以支持新闻教育工作者设计或重新设计顶点单元，特别是在商定的原则、标准和最佳实践领域。