A critique of the Higher Education Achievement Report (HEAR)

Phil Brown, University of St Mark & St John, UK and Ruth Boyask, University of Plymouth, UK

A personal, not institutional perspective.

What is HEAR

Sector endorsed scheme under development since 2004.

HEAR aims to more fully record student achievement and outcomes from Higher Education.

A formal, locked, exit document.

“Students can represent a wider range of their achievements to employers and postgraduate tutors, thereby enhancing their employability” (Universities UK/GuildHE, no date, p.6).

Formative process can support PDP?

Neoliberal framing

Neoliberal discourse & rationality. Global competition – national competitiveness (Dearing Report, 1997)

Knowledge economy - from social policy to an economic policy (Furlong, 2008)

Marketisation of HE – tuition fees = return of investment in jobs market (Jarvis 2000, Murphy 2005).

Problem - Supply-side growth in HE student V’s demand-side graduate positions. ‘Oversupply’ of graduates?

Oversupply of graduates (employability) is conflated as a problem of students not being able to record or articulate HE achievements.

What problems does HEAR aim to address?

Perceived ‘problem’ with traditional honours degree (Dearing Report, 1997). Limitations of current recording of achievement (Burgess, 2004, 2007)

Jackson’s (2010) three contested problems1. Desire to move away from the traditional degree classification2. Perceived need to provide additional information to students and

employers3. How to capture lifewide learning (learning beyond the university

curricula)

Widening participation & social mobility = more students / 1st & 2:1’s. How do students stand out from the crowd? How are achievements recorded?How do students articulate their achievements? How do employers make recruitment decisions?

HEAR – Replacing the honours degree?

Lack of consensus

Professor Mahoney (HEA CeO)

the ultimate intention of [HEAR], if it were a success…is to replace classified degrees with a more meaningful outcome from universities for students to be able to use as their license into the workforce” (Mahoney cited by Gibney, 2013)

“During its deliberations, the committee considered many options (…) but the sector was unable to reach a consensus and we therefore decided to phase changes to the system. As a starting point, we introduced the HEAR to address key issues, particularly graduate employment” (Burgess, 2011).

HEAR detail record

1. Personal details of the degree holder

2. Qualification name and title

3. Qualification duration and level within the HEQF(QAA 2008) and details of the awarding institution.

4. Programme, module, assessment methods/attempts/ results and final degree result.

5. Professional status and function of qualification.

6. Section 6 ‘additional information’. Richer picture of achievement verified by university.

7. Official verification

8. Web link to sector information (Burgess 2012, Universities

UK/GuildHE, no date, p. 11)

Implementation gapAmbition: 2010/11 all students should receive HEARs (Burgess, 2007).

Aim for sector wide adoption of by from 2012.

50% of HEIs inline to issue HEAR (Burgess, 2012)

Sector wide ‘endorsement’ - but not implementation.

Oxford and Cambridge publicly state they will not issue HEARs (Paton, 2012).

Prestigious HEI’s provide a strong marker of achievement. Oxbridge power-knowledge nexus – influence within sector and beyond.

2015 HEAR implementation

58 (35%) out of 164 HEI’s issuing HEARS (HEA, personal communication 13 April, 2015) –consensus not yet achieved. Degree classification still key marker of graduate achievement.

Dividing practice

• Divided sector - division is not useful to students or employers.

• The section 6.1 HEAR ‘verifying’ (some) additional achievement.

• Prestigious roles are comparatively rare - rarity adds market value of cultural capital reified through HEAR - legitimising culture reproduction of the market evaluation of cultural capital (Bourdieu and Passerson 1990).

• Gaining university awards, volunteering or serving on committees has an opportunity cost.

• Will HEAR really benefit everyone?

HEAR’s Panoptic GazeFoucault (1979) Observation & surveillance

Descending individualism - gaze of authority figures monitor less powerful. Successes and failures.

– Gaze of Academic Tutors, Post Grad. Tutors & employers

Disciplinary power – self-regulation Promoting, valuing & rewarding desirable behaviours & modifying unproductive behaviours through HEAR.

“employers we spoke to were firmly of the view that it must be a complete record –representing ‘attainment only’ would be regarded by some as a ‘cover-up’”(Burgess 2012:38).

“HEAR has the potential to change student behaviour by enhancing their aspirations from the earliest stages of their academic career” (Burgess, 2012, p.20).

Is HEAR’s panoptic gaze desirable? University is a time to mature, grow, try new things, and make mistakes! Do students need the constant pressure to perform?

What is the use value of HEAR?

The ultimate question? What value does HEAR add and to who? (Ward, 2010)

Is HEAR information useful to students and employers?

Is HEAR a more equitable mechanism of recording achievement?

Why is verification of extra curricula activities necessary?

Limitations of HEAR

• HEAR - partial record of learning (mediated by HEI).

• Unequal evaluation of activities • How do students record non-verified learning?

Student voices are lost in HEAR. Limited self-authorship & curation of the university experience. Where is the “authentic voice”?

HE from dependence to independence (learners and recorders of achievement). HEAR institutionalises the recording of achievement. Limits self-articulation of learning by students. Does authenticity require external verification?

• HEAR ‘afterlife’ - a useful aide memoir? - Poor alignment with lifelong and lifewide learning- Long-term use? - Alternative beyond university. E-portfolio, LinkedIn?

Concluding thoughts

Missed opportunity to resist the dominance of the economic discourse. HEAR is a new technology of neoliberal governmentality.

Missed opportunity to promote an oppositional discourse – valuing all ‘life-wide’ experiences and the wider role of universities in society.

Valuing achievement – deep, meaningful, or, instrumental approaches.

Lack of sector consensus diminishes HEAR. Falls along way short of its original aspiration.

Long-term use value to students and employers is questionable…..based upon a false premise?

ReferencesBourdieu, P. and Passerson, J-C. (1990) Reproduction in Education, Society and Culture. 2nd Edition. London: Sage

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Burgess (2004) Measuring and recording student achievement. London: Universities UK/SCOP. Retrieved from http://www.universitiesuk.ac.uk/highereducation/Pages/MeasuringAchievement.aspx#.UgzZ5iZwbcs

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Gibney, E. (2013) Stalled progress on GPA may benefit from national push. Times Higher Education 25 April 2013. Retrieved

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http://lifewidelearningconference.pbworks.com/w/page/25472449/higher%20education

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Paton, G. (2012a) Students to be issued with graduation ‘report cards’. Telegraph 3 October 2012. Retrieved from http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/universityeducation/9581619/Students-to-be-issued-with-graduation-report-cards.html#disqus_thread