Transcripts - UK Universities

I have just been given a new College to get operationally viable and academically legal - the third in 12 months. You don't have to be a degree mill to operate below standard :-(

One of my initial witch hunts is the teachers/lecturers qualifications. Some of these are UK qualified. I will NOT just accept the degree parchment itself, and insist on the detailed transcript. That is the only way that i can verify that the person is academically qualified to deliver the course - a requirement of any Dean, and now a stated requirement under the AQTF.

The problem is that 2 of these teachers state quite absolutely that their UK Universities only issued the degree parchment - NO transcript was ever issued. One of these is Humbleside ... can anyone comment on this please? - either on the University or on the UK policy/practice.

Peter French,
Melbourne, Australia

 

Hmmmm... Though I know very little about UK universities, my first inclination is to suspect that they're simply mistaken.

What I would do: Tell them "Humor me--send the registrar a transcript request, and ask that the transcript--or a brief letter of explanation--be sent directly to me. If I receive a letter directly from the school indicating that no transcripts can be sent, we can proceed from there."


Cheers,

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Tom Head
www.tomhead.net

co-author, Bears' Guide to the Best Education Degrees by Distance Learning (Ten Speed Press)
co-author, Get Your IT Degree and Get Ahead (Osborne/McGraw-Hill)

 

I see no "Humbleside" in the International Centre for Distance Learning's database of UK providers at http://www-icdl.open.ac.uk/providerResult.ihtml?loc=uk

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Kristin Evenson Hirst
DistanceLearn.About.com

 

Whats't the name of the College Pete, or is that confidential?

George

 

Could be, Bruce. ICDL says "The University of Lincolnshire and Humberside (ULH) is one of the United Kingdom's newer vocational universities, although the history of its constituent colleges goes back over 130 years."

See http://www.ulh.ac.uk/ Looks as if it offers primarily undergrad courses, except for an MBA.

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Kristin Evenson Hirst
DistanceLearn.About.com

 

I stand corrected - ULH is it. Now does any one have an asnwer for me?

Peter

 

Considering what I said out it it - yes it is confidential to the general population - to you ... when I have never kept anything from you ... check your e-mail box.

Peter French
(not a CEU candidate - just got my credits like Rich did)

 

I'd contact the schools directly and ask about their policies & procedures for sending transcripts.

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Kristin Evenson Hirst
DistanceLearn.About.com

 

The only specific knowledge I have is of Heriot-Watt U (Royal Chartered British). There was no concept of a transcript there, but upon completion of each course, they would write a letter to the student comfirming completion of that course along with, as I recall, a brief catalogue-like description of the course, along with the "grade" (exam score in this case). They maintained (and the American academic world had no problem with) the fact that the sheaf of letters combined with the final letter confirming the awarding of the degree, was the equivalent of a transcript.

 

Graduates from the University of London only get their exam. result slips and degree parchments. However, they can apply for transcripts by giving a small fee.

 

To state it correctly, it is known as the examination results. Unlike the US transcripts, not many subjects and grades are included in the UK 'transcripts'.

 

I'm very surprised this is even an issue in a commonwealth country.

The concept of a transcript in the UK is (or at least was until about five years ago) completely alien. If, Peter, you insist upon a transcript, you're going to be disappointed, because there just ain't no such thing, at least for "home" students. A recent development, especially at universities with a substantial American population (read St Andrews), is a transcript-like thing for their foreign population. Modularisation has led a small drive for transcripts, but since credit transfer is a difficult affair, it's a small drive.

You MAY, as Yan suggested, be able to get degree results; that material -- at least where I did my doctorate -- is kept on file with the individual departments, not centrally, and from my experience is rather chaotically filed.

If you need to verify the degree, contact the registrar of the university.

Jon Porter (MPhil St Andrews, PhD Nottingham)
(once again engaged in his annual quest to convince hiring departments at US univerities that I have no graduate transcripts, and they should deal with it)

 

Thanks Jon and John, and others for their comments. The issue arises when you take over some institution that has the faculty in place, you undertake a complete (not sample) internal audit. A BA is not just a BA, as it could be 'bullshit artist', or 'bloody awful' as is clearly the case with one lecturer. I have to look at many legal issues, like potential 'contructed dismissal', and i need all of the facts - just WHAT did the person study.

Peter French

 

We have transcripts in Australia and they go for the duration of your study at an Institution and cover all degrees, repeats, fails etc.. As Institutions, we are required to have a detailed CV for each teacher/lecturer that supports our selections of them in the context of the subject matter being taught. Without this we have no way of knowing the content.

With the number of applicants we usually get, if one cannot produce what we require, there is no way any of my satff are going to go hunting - THAT requirement is placed on the applicant. If they can't provide that to our satisfaction, how can we rely on them to provide the students what they should in the course?

It would be quicker to give any UK applications the 'miss'. In any event I am knocking out all of those with the Cambridge/RSA ESL/TESOL qualification, as it does not meet Australian standards. Maybe if they have a degree and 5+ years teaching TESOL we may scrape them through, but otherwise the Cambridge/RSA is not accpted here - aspiring language teachers take note! - as we require underlying teacher training plus at least a Graduate Certificate.

One thing that aspiring teachers/academics should look at, is where they may end up, and select their degrees/streams accordingly. September 11 has caused many in US and UK to think on a different plane, and it is tough telling them that their qualifications are not globally acceptable.

Peter French
Melbourne, Australia

 

Here in Canada -- a CW country -- we've had transcripts for as long as I can remember. We spell color as colour, armor as armour, but we still scratch our heads when people talk of A levels and O levels. Why would it be surprising that another CW country would not be familiar with the UK system?

--
Quinn Tyler Jackson

 

Pete, ULH is one of the newer Universites, transformed from what we called poly's (polytechnic collges). It's quite reputable and has as been mentioned, been in operation for over a hundred years. As for transcripts, honestly, it's not a big thing in the UK. When I say that, it's not to suggest that faking a degree is easy, but you graduate you get all the usual stuff and can pay an extra amount for the transcript.

What some provide is the subjects and the amount of credits each subject was worth (12/24 credits). People in large majorities just don't really bother with the transcript side of things, purely because most start anf finish their degrees / courses at the same college, and they don't transfer from place to place and need to confirm their previous study. It is quite hard to do it in the UK actually, where as in the US you can do a credit here and a credit there.

The department at the school probably wouldn't give you details anyway, as the reputation of the school would speak for itself and therefore the staff would be up to scratch.

If you look at the UK, the newer universities are the ones that seem to be on the ball when it comes to things like this and authenticity.

As well as ULH, you have UWE (University of the West of England in Bristol, which is the former poly there), UniGlam (the University of Glamorgan, which was known as the polytechnic of Wales), and the old poly in east anglia, which is now a university (Ipswich Uni I believe).

The point being that reputability is not a problem. The answer to the question is that transcripts are not a big thing due to the reason mentioned above (starting and finihsing in one place). If you are interested in their Business Courses, let me know as I have had first hand experience with their Administrative Management programs, which they offer in conjunction with the IAM (Institute of Administrative Management).

D

 

Anglia Polytechnic University (unless they've recently changed their name!)

jon

 

Thanks for your information. The issue simply is NOT the degree which i have no reason to doubt, but the CONTENT. Presumably there, as here there is some selction within a degree, and therefore all degrees of the smae name e.g. BA, BComm will not be the same. I am not permitted to allow anyone to teach who has not the equivelant competencies or greater to those being taught.

Without a transcript, I will never know. Without a transcript, I will never give a person the position that they are applying for.

An example - I need someone to teach Cultural Issues in Communication. The obvious choice are is a BA, but if the BA is in Ancient History.....?

Peter

 

Trying to get some sort of transcript would be the obvious option. Though I do think that will be tough. You might find yourself looking for someone without a british degree and looking elsewhere, just to get the transcripts I'm afraid.

Good Luck though

D