University ‘report card’ may one day replace traditional honours degree system
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More than half of UK universities, including Edinburgh, Glasgow and St Andrews, have implemented the Higher Education Achievement Report (Hear), which will give a detailed record of a person’s university achievements alongside their final degree award.
The record, which includes details of volunteering work, any prizes a student has won and membership of sporting clubs, was introduced in September after being piloted at several universities.
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Hide AdProfessor Sir Robert Burgess, vice-chancellor of Leicester University and chair of the working group that recommended introducing the electronic record, said he hoped it would eventually replace the existing degree classification system.
He said: “The UK honours degree is a robust and highly valued qualification, but universities have recognised for some time that a single degree classification cannot do justice to the range of skills, knowledge and experience students gain during their time in higher education.
“The Hear is designed to encourage a more sophisticated approach. Our previous report identified the damaging obsession with first and upper-second degree classifications and it is now clear that this is not enough detail for students and employers. The aim of the Hear is to provide the wider picture of a student’s achievements.”
Last year, University College London became the first UK university to drop the 200-year-old honours system, replacing it with an American-style “grade point average”.
UCL said it aimed to tackle “award inflation” – almost two-thirds of its students gained a first or upper-second class degree in 2010.