The files that will put degrees in the shade

The fresh graduates of the future will no longer be able hide their imperfections behind a general degree classification. A final report, with implications far greater than the transient fury of a parent, will show how well (or badly) they did for each part of their course, and will give useful information to prospective employers.

Nights spent raving instead of studying, which may show up in poor marks for one module, can no longer be made up by harder study later on. Instead of a little scroll stating the degree awarded, students will graduate with what is being called a "progress file".

This will include a transcript telling the world how they have done in the modules that increasingly make up degrees, and also a personal development record cataloguing their reflections on what they have learnt, and what they plan to do with their lives.

All universities and colleges are being consulted about this reform and a 20-page paper has been dispatched in a joint exercise by the Vice-Chancellors' Committee, higher education college principals and the Quality Assurance Agency. Replies have to be in by the end of December.

"The progress file is an important element of the new public policy framework being created to help make the outcomes of learning in higher education more explicit," says the paper. "In doing so... the quality of learning will be improved (because students are clearer about what is expected of them and what they, in turn, might expect), and the basis for academic standards will be clearer."

Until now employers have had little to go on when recruiting graduates. If the prospective employee had attended an old university before 1992, they had a very rough idea of what he or she could do and some idea of what the degree classification meant. But for recent graduates, or those educated abroad, firms had no idea what was entailed because the degree certificate revealed nothing - and some employers were often pretty rude about the lack of useful skills of some British graduates.

In the Nineties, with the explosion in higher education and the admission of polytechnics to the university fold, degree classifications per se have become increasingly meaningless. In addition, the content of degrees changed with the introduction of modules carrying a certain number of credits. (Almost all universities now break degrees down into modules. Only 5 per cent, including Oxford and Cambridge, do not.) People began to scoff at the notion that a first from Oxford was equivalent to a first from the University of Luton, and the now-defunct Higher Education Quality Council suggested to Lord Dearing that progress files should replace the honours classification system.

Dearing was cautious. Although he recommended progress files in his 1997 report on higher education, he thought there was a continuing role for degree classes. Employers would always want a brief summary of students' achievements, he said, but as progress files were adopted the honours classification system would become increasingly redundant.

Not surprisingly, the consultation document winging its way around universities and colleges makes no mention of abolishing degree classes - a move that would unsettle a quintessentially conservative system and provoke hostile comment in newspapers. Instead it gives a brief rationale for progress files, including the need to help people record and plan for "lifelong learning" (the Government's educational buzz-phrase). As with motherhood and apple pie, it is difficult to see how universities and colleges can object.

Some experts do, however, have their doubts - and they concern not only where the money and staff time will come from to meet such a reform. Professor Alan Smithers, of Liverpool University, says: "I think it's well-intentioned and superficially a good idea, but there's always a danger of information overload. People recruiting graduates often just want an accurate summary of students' relative performance - something they can believe in, that's easy to understand. I'm concerned a lot of effort will go into these things and not much use will be made of them. That's been our experience of records of achievement in schools."

Universities know all about the achievement records introduced with great fanfare into secondary schools in the last decade. That's because they've been on the receiving end of them - and are mostly unenthusiastic. University applicants have sometimes turned up for an interview or open day clutching folders bulging with their achievements in swimming and music, which admissions tutors have had neither the time nor the inclination to examine.

The problem is that some secondary school children have not been taught how to use such records. As with a personal development record in a higher education progress file, this data is not supposed to be presented to recruiters. Instead it is raw material for students to use when filling in application forms, preparing for interviews and so on. There is, however, some evidence that the records have a good effect. A recent Ucas survey showed that the one-third of university applicants who had records of achievement, did better in admissions than those without them.

Martin Thorne, director of the careers service at Nottingham University and president of the Association of Graduate Careers Advisory Services (Agcas), also has some concerns. Speaking in a personal capacity, because Agcas has not yet discussed the consultation paper, he wonders whether employers have been consulted enough. "If part of the intention is that this is going to be a document that people will use to present to employers, then we need to be sure that it's going to be useful to them," he says.

To be effective, progress files need to be the responsibility of the academic staff as much as the students, says Thorne. They should not be seen as just another form to be filled in. Certainly, universities that have been piloting progress files have embedded them deeply into academic life. Leeds, for example, has found them to be an excellent way of helping students to be clear about what they're learning and how that fits in with what they want to do, according to the university's careers adviser, Val Butcher.

"The benefit is that it gives students the language to articulate what they have gained from their time at university, which can feed into job applications and continuing professional development," she says. "It's not about loading employers with a lot more paper."

Higher education establishments have found that progress files can have a positive impact on the relationship between a student and his or her tutor, says Patricia Ambrose, chief executive of the Standing Conference of Principals. "Say they have a meeting once a semester; it's a way a student can take some element of charge over the situation, and look back and think, `This is what I want to get out of this meeting; this is what I want to follow up.' It's a way for both parties to keep track of how things are going."

At Leeds, and some other universities such as Nottingham, progress files are being used to breathe new life into the personal tutoring system, which is under stress as a result of the expansion of higher education. Students are being given a progress file to complete before they see their personal tutor. That means the tutor can see at a glance how the students are doing and what they think about their progress. "The personal tutor's time is much better used," says Jim Parry, dean for students at Leeds.

York is another university that has been operating a system of progress files for the last 18 months. The scheme is voluntary, and 230 students have signed up out of a total of 5,000.

At Nottingham a new system has been introduced to revive the personal tutoring system, following the fragmentation caused to degree courses by introducing modules and credits. At present 6,000 out of 23,000 students are using the system and Nottingham plans to introduce it across the university in 2001. Newcastle is planning to do the same in 2002. Both universities are expecting to put their systems online.

"What students really want is feedback on their progress," says Angela Smallwood, senior lecturer in English literature. "They want to know how they're doing."

In a few years' time Smallwood expects all students throughout Britain to have progress files on computer. Certainly, in the short term it is expected that universities and colleges will sign up to all students having a transcript; and in the longer run they will probably start adopting personal development records, too.

WHAT LORD DEARING SAID

"We recommend that institutions of higher education, over the medium term, develop a progress file. The file should consist of two elements:

n A transcript recording student achievement which should follow a common format devised by institutions collectively through their representative bodies.

n A means by which students can monitor, build and reflect upon their personal development."