Thinking about student-centred teaching and learning, I’m reminded of the concept of the ideal graduate. When I was at City University of Hong Kong in the early 2000s, the institution had an ideal graduate statement. The notion is still in use there today – for instance in promotion of the discovery-enriched curriculum. “The University believes that the DEC will nurture the creativity of our students and enable them to acquire the attributes of ideal CityU graduates.” It’s also employed elsewhere. Top of a Hong Kong Google search is Lingnan University, which has quite detailed ideal graduate statements, adopted in May 2009, for undergraduates, taught postgraduates and research postgraduates. I beg to dissent. If student-centred teaching and learning has any meaning, then alumni will develop substantially different attributes. True, some core abilities will be acquired by all of them. But they will still differ in significant ways. And that’s OK. There is, then, no place for detailed prescription – and no such thing as the ideal graduate.