When addressing problems with wicked tendencies in higher professional education, students experience complexity, uncertainty, and value divergence. Furthermore, they are confronted with disciplinary, organisational, and sector boundaries. Prior research has revealed variability in students’ experiences and boundary-crossing behaviour when dealing with problems with wicked tendencies. In this study we explore these differences by identifying student profiles based on the attributes that comprise the competence for dealing with problems with wicked tendencies, and by identifying their relations with students’ boundary-crossing behaviour and relevant work experience. Person-centred cluster analysis in a sample of first-year students (N = 264) from a bachelor’s programme in social work identified four student profiles, based on students’ self-assessed degree of creativity, critical thinking, initiative, proactivity …