What is the Diploma Supplement?
The 8 Sections of the Diploma Supplement
Information identifying the holder of the qualification
Information identifying the qualification
Information on the level of the qualification
Information on the content of the qualification and the results gained
Information on the function of the qualification
Additional information
Certification of the Diploma Supplement
Summary and description of the UK Higher Education and Training System
The Diploma Supplement originated as a result of a UNESCO idea in 1979. It has since been revised, refined and tested by the European Commission, the Council of Europe and UNESCO. It aims to describe a qualification in a 'standard format that is easy to understand and easy to compare'. It also, "describes the content of the qualification and the structure of the higher education system within which it was issued.". The Berlin summit called for "every student graduating as from 2005 to receive the Diploma Supplement automatically and free of charge". (Europe Unit: Diploma Supplement)
The Diploma Supplement is a supplement to, and not a replacement for, a Curriculum Vitae. It is also one of the five Europass documents. Although Europass is not a Bologna mechanism as such, we have included it in our review because of its synergy with other elements of the process.
Drivers for and Benefits of the Diploma Supplement
There are a number of drivers in the UK for the Diploma Supplement including internationalisation, mobility and employability (transparency/equivalence across signatory countries), the government steer in providing learning records (including the UK's own Higher Education Achievement Report (HEAR)), and demands from the customers themselves in a paying market for authenticated records of their achievements.
There are real cost benefits available to institutions opting to use electronic documents, Digitary, a company specialising in secure document production and authentication for Higher Education has produced the following cost-benefit model example.
However the primary drivers are benefits-led, as it is strongly felt the Diploma Supplement can help provide:
- improved transparency and recognition
- readable and easily comparable information across countries
- a comprehensive record of academic career (including achievements and competencies and skills acquired during a period of study)
- an emphasis on employability (both within and beyond the home country)
- an emphasis on lifelong learning
- facilitation of UK students' mobility
- improved student prospects within the international labour market (employability)
- international recognition
- a key into the Europass scheme i.e. where used with other supporting documents
- a smoother admissions process
- an enhanced international profile of the institution, seen to be engaging with the Bologna Process
Diploma Supplement Adoption
The Diploma Supplement is used widely in other countries participating in the Bologna Process and there is growing interest beyond, for example in Australia. Australia has ratified the Lisbon Recognition Convention and has, 'an international obligation to promote the widespread use of the Diploma Supplement by Australian tertiary institutions' http://aei.gov.au/.
The implementation of the Diploma Supplement in the UK (originally planned to be completed by 2005) has been patchy, although according to the 2007 Europe Unit survey it has improved, with 60% of respondents using it. However, issues remain and the UK is perceived in some areas to be lagging behind other Bologna countries in this respect.
There are a number of challenges with the implementation of the Diploma Supplement in the UK including issues related to data and information systems being of particular significance. The Diploma Supplement is seen as an administrative burden in some areas and is not being treated as a priority.
Sources of advice and guidance
- The UK Higher Education Europe Unit
- JISC CETIS service (interoperability and standards)
- JISC Advance
- Bologna Experts
- Learning Records Service (formerly MIAP)
Helpful resources
Institutions adopting the Diploma Supplement have found a number of issues to tackle, such as:
- Raising awareness, encouraging buy-in
- Costs (time/resource)
- Electronic vs paper-based systems
- Software selection
- Existing business processes
- Mapping to existing data sources (and accuracy of these)
- Recording credits and course-related information (learning outcomes etc)
- Storage, archiving and security - records management in general
- Digital signatures and authentication
- Identity and access management
- Interoperability/data transfer issues
- Standards for Extensible Markup Languages (XML) schemas
Technology can be an enabler but its limitations should be recognised and a suitably blended approach should be adopted accordingly.
Data management issues include the 'persistence' of information and the appropriate presentation of it, for instance the URLs used in hard copy and electronic documents can quickly change or disappear and this has an effect on the usability of the document. These records management type issues are wider than just the technology, they impact on other processes - i.e. they are as relevant to stakeholders in Registry/Administration areas. Data quality (or the lack of it) from core systems is an issue that may be familiar to many. MIAP (Managing Information Across Partners) has been established as a body to tackle issues related to information, its intention is to, 'streamline the collection, handling and sharing of information on learning and achievement for education and training organisations'.
Producing a Diploma Supplement
As part of this suite of resources, JISC infoNet commissioned a piece of work on Producing a Diploma Supplement to carry out a gap analysis of the HESA student record, existing systems and Diploma Supplement data requirements and produce a data map based around four institutional case studies. These offer indicative examples of how different proprietary Student Records Systems are being used. Institutions should be able to use the mappings as a direct source of information by generating a partial Diploma Supplement from decoded HESA values and sourcing missing fields from other systems. Alternatively, the HESA mapping can be used as a key to finding the information within the student record system.
Relationship between the Diploma Supplement and other records
The Higher Education Achievement Report (HEAR) recommended by the Burgess Report is being piloted in the disciplines of English, Biology, Accounting and Creative Arts in 18 HEIs. The initial trials will use data for students who graduated in summer 2008. The trials will allow the Centre for Records of Achievement, the Higher Education Academy and JISC to explore the software requirements, development of student record systems and the provision of information. We will add links to the outputs from this work as they become available.
There is quite a substantial degree of overlap between the Transcript element of the HE Progress File (introduced as a result of the Dearing Report) and the Diploma Supplement, with a number of similar fields in each document. There are also, however, some important differences between the two documents:
- The Diploma Supplement is only issued on the successful completion of a qualification whilst the Transcript has both formative and summative elements and can be issued at regular intervals throughout a course of study (in order to report on progress to date).
- The Transcript enables students to 'monitor, build and reflect on their personal development' in comparison with the Diploma Supplement which does not have a personal development and planning function.
- The Diploma Supplement contains information that the Transcript does not, including a description of the higher education system, information on the status of the awarding institution, the main fields of study, grading scheme, access requirements and the mode of study.
- There is a significant difference in the sequence of information.
Recently, there has been a generally positive reaction to the suggestion that the Diploma Supplement and Transcript could be incorporated into a single document. This approach would mean that the Diploma Supplement would include the final Transcript. It is important that the information on this combined document is consistent with the official Diploma Supplement - holding appropriate information in an acceptable sequence.
European Credit Transfer and Accumulation System (ECTS) credit details are included in the Diploma Supplement.
