Right Hear, right now

Universities UK and GuildHE have just published the final report of a steering group overseeing the development of the Higher Education Achievement Report (Hear), an electronic document that provides a concise yet comprehensive record of students' academic and extracurricular achievements during their time in higher education.

More than half of institutions are now signed up to introducing the Hear, and there is every reason to expect that more will follow soon as it has been recommended to the sector by the representative bodies. It provides a far more sophisticated way of recording student achievement than the present honours degree classification system, and it goes a long way towards answering the call for institutions to do more for students and to demonstrate the full value of a degree both to graduates and to their prospective employers.

Because of the extensive and intensive trialling of the Hear, and the efforts of all involved, we can have great confidence in the Hear as its implementation is taken forward under the stewardship of the Higher Education Academy.

Sir Robert Burgess, Vice-chancellor, University of Leicester, Chair of the Burgess Implementation Steering Group for the Hear