HEAR
What is an achievement report?
The Higher Education Achievement Report (HEAR) will provide a single comprehensive record of your achievements as a student at the University of Edinburgh.
The HEAR builds upon existing information incorporating an expanded academic transcript and the European Diploma Supplement. This will provide you with more detailed information about your learning and achievement than the traditional degree classification system alone, and will serve to support applications for employment and further studies.
The HEAR is not a replacement for a degree certificate, CV or job application statement. Instead it should sit alongside these as a complementary document, providing evidence of the range of verifiable knowledge, skills and experience you have developed at the university.
All students (with the exception of Research Postgraduates) who graduate from summer 2012 onwards will receive an achievement report. This includes students achieving an undergraduate or postgraduate Certificate or Diploma and visiting students.
What will it include?
Your HEAR will comprise the following sections:
1. Information about you - this section includes your name, date of birth, student identification number etc
2. Information about your qualification - degree title and subject, awarding institution(s).
3. Information about the level of your qualification - level of study, duration, entry requirements.
4. Information on the content of your studies and results gained - programme description/requirements (via a link to the degree specification document) and full academic transcript.
The transcript will include all courses where credits have been achieved and will show the overall Mark, Grade, Result, Level, Credits Achieved and Number of Attempts for that course. Courses with an overall Fail will not be shown. This information can be viewed via MyEd.
5. Information on the function of your qualification - access to further study, professional status.
6. Additional information - this is the section that allows the University to confirm information related to your wider achievements during your course of study. This includes: • Academic Prizes and Awards • The Edinburgh Award • Student Union or Sports Union representatives, office bearers, society and sports club official positions (president, secretary, treasurer) • Class representatives • Student membership of internal university review teams (e.g. teaching programme reviews). This information can be viewed via MyEd.
7. Information on the national higher education system - description of higher education in Scotland, diagram of higher education levels.
How will I get it?
During your studies you can access much of the information which will be included in your HEAR via MyEd and the university website.
You will receive the official HEAR document shortly after your graduation.
Background to the achievement report
The HEAR was an initiative recommended by a Universities UK committee, the 'Burgess Group', in 2007. Their ‘Beyond the Honours Degree Classification' report concluded that the development of the HEAR would assist in a modernisation of the traditional degree classification system. The report is available from the link below.
This article was published on Oct 24, 2012