Higher Education Achievement Report what a terrible idea

[Figmentofmyimagination]

Under plans supported by (usually sensible) Tristram Hunt, this proposal will mean that instead of just having a first, 2:1, 2:2 or 3rd to show for their three years at university, future students will receive a portfolio report recording all the "voluntary" societies, positions of responsibility, charitable works, essay competitions, etc etc etc the student notched up while at university, to better aid employers in assessing their employability. Aaargh.

Wow. Well, that does sound a truly shit idea.

Isn't that what a CV is for?

So who is supposed to put the report together? Surely being able to sensibly put this information on a cv aids employers anyway

It's compiled by the university, so presumably there will have to be regular inputting by students, monitoring, verification etc a sort of nationwide D of E. I am guessing these people have never heard of intrinsic motivation. And if you can't measure it, it's obviously not worth doing.

www.hear.ac.uk

Here. You can read all about it. I hadn't realised quite how well established it seems to be.

It's already in operation. I have recently had an email from them (3rd year student) to activate mine and I know it was the same for last year's graduates.

It's supported (or at least mine is) by a company called Gradintel and it works to connect graduates with employers who can advertise on it and search for particular graduates, although I haven't finished activating mine and read through it properly, so I could be wrong.

I already have a certificate for the 120 hours voluntary work I did last academic year and the tracking of it this year is more detailed / robust.

"The HEAR can also be seen as a symbolic and practical expression of the UK’s student-centred and quality-focussed higher education culture."

That sounds fabulous!
It sounds like that portfolio thing they did in schools - does anyone ever look at them?

Senua. DD2 and DD3 have portfolios from school but no one has ever asked to look at them, DD3!is at at university but DD2 is nearly 25 she graduated a couple of years ago, She said not one employer has ever asked to look at her portfolio

It's been around for more than five years now - it's not an invention of Tristram Hunt. I think it's rubbish too, but it's not his fault!

Reading has something similar. It seems reasonably harmless - not sure why all the hate?

DD isn't worrying about it as she spends every free hour sports training. Nobody can do everything, and an awful lot of it does seem to be "so how are you going to make yourself look attractive to an employer if all you do in your non timetable time is socialise." I think that's a reasonable question to ask of a uni student who does no music, no sport, no volunteering...I think it's pretty irrelevant to anyone who already does plenty of them.

Yes, it's what a CV is for, but by the time you're putting together the CV it's too late. The point of this sort of structure is that throughout uni you're encouraged to do the sorts of things that you'll put on your CV later.

What about students who have to do part time jobs to help fund their university. This is another thing which favours the well off, like unpaid internships do

They have been around a while, most students try to ignore as it's a bit irrelevant but Hunt would love it because it reduces the whole university experience to a crappy CV. After all, for them university is about 'making yourself attractive' (horrible metaphor) to employers, not actually learning stuff that you will find enjoyable/useful/enlightening/amazing...

"What about students who have to do part time jobs to help fund their university."

That's going to be useful to them in exactly the same way that having done volunteering etc is to someone who doesn't have a part time job.

The point isn't to have a list of impressive names to drop, it's to have a bit of evidence that you've done more at uni than treat it as an extension of school where adults are the ones who organise everything you do. There's any number of ways you can do that including holding down a job.

This has always been part of the Uni experience, and part time jobs can give you even more of the soft skills.

Admittedly the unpaid internships have also always been part of the experience too, people from working class backgrounds didn't get jobs with Sotherby's because you had to work for them for free for 6 months to a year first.

My DCs state school does something similar. Its just a way of collating all the "other" things you do. Some employers might be interested, others will not.

Greg Clark's the universities minister anyway not Tristram Hunt.