1. FAQ’s and the HEAR… Rob Ward The Centre for Recording Achievement rob@recordingachievement.org

2. By when… Implementation Steering Group has agreed that the default position is that there should be sector-wide rollout with incoming students at the beginning of the academic year 2011-2012. Voluntary take up could occur from 2010-11 if all continues to go well with the current trial. Assuming institutions wish to commence with first years in 2011-2012 this would indicate an issue date of 2013 for Foundation degree students, of 2014 for three-year undergraduate programmes and 2015 for four-year programmes.

3. A complete record… Everything that counts towards the final degree result should be recorded including fails and low marks.

4. A deeper record… than the standard transcript currently available in many HEIs. ambition to drill down to module level and report upon assessment elements but without becoming over complex or lengthy.

5. A wider record…section 6.1 Section 6.1 (additional achievements) considered to be an important part of the HEAR; expectation that all HEIs would complete the section although some might need to phase it in. Recorded under one of three headings: –University, Professional and Departmental Prizes. –measured or assessed performance in non-academic contexts accredited by, or with external accreditation recognised by the University, eg awards concerned with employability. –additional formal roles taken by students for which no recognition is provided in terms of academic credit, eg Course Representatives or Students’ Union Officers. If an HEI initially is not able to complete section 6.1 then it should indicate this on the HEAR.

6. A scalable initiative…

7. Ownership/Stewardship the University will not necessarily ‘own’ all of the data included in the HEAR… more sensible to refer to ‘stewardship’ rather than ‘ownership’ > stewardship would be the role taken by the institution…

8. Length in hard copy no longer than six pages. If held electronically in PDF format possible to include web links that take the reader to additional information. If held as an electronic ‘data set’ capable of being searched electronically, eg within an online recruitment process, the amount of data held can be fuller/more substantial.

9. Expectations of HEAR Trial Institutions (to Autumn 2010) 1. Participating in the HEAR trial process. 2.Reporting back on the key issues. 3.Providing sample/exemplar HEARs.