Recommendations of the UK 'Burgess Group'

Abstract

Important contributions to the design and implementation of the Diploma Supplement in the UK have been made by two different advisory groups chaired by Professor Robert Burgess, Vice Chancellor of the University of Leicester. These advisory groups also have raised key issues associated with the measurement, recording and report of student achievement, and the grading of bachelors degrees. All this could be highly relevant for the Australian higher education system. The first of these groups was the advisory group set up by Universities UK and the Standing Conference of Principals (SCOP) with the support of the Higher Education Funding Council of Eng land to review the recommendations from the 2003 UK Government White Paper, The Future of Higher Education, relating specifically to recording student achievement, value added, degree classifications and credit systems. Its formal name was the Measuring and Recording Student Achievement Scoping Group. The second group was a Steering Committee with a somewhat different membership set up by the same bodies to lead consultations on the recommendations of the first group in their major report Measuring and Recording Student Achievement. While both groups have been referred to as the 'Burgess Group' the term strictly belongs to the second group that led the consultative processes that took place in 2005 and 2006.