I have been looking at student mobility in the UK. What I mean by student mobility is how a student can choose when and where to study, at a time and place that is suitable for them. It’s about enabling students to take parts of courses from different institutions. This (in theory) is possible now, but was challenging for students from both a financial perspective and administratively.

One challenge this is often thrown out when discussing student mobility is about who awards the degree if a student is undertaking studies at a range of different institutions. The usual thinking is that the home institution would be responsible. However the aspirations of student mobility (whether that be within LLE or not) is that of lifelong learning. The concept of a home institution may not be practical or viable for a student who is studying over a longer time period.

This got me thinking about the necessity of having to stacking a student’s studies so a degree can be awarded. Is that absolutely essential?

This however isn’t something that students and institutions need to grapple with, employers and others would also need to be engaged in the process. So when a person makes an application for employment (or future study) the stack of qualifications they have, are recognised for what they are, without the need for some institution to combine them into a single qualification. 

If you have 360 credits, this is recognised as equivalent to a standard degree. Does the student need to have these credits validated so they can be awarded a degree? I am sure some individuals would want that, but is it a requirement, does it have to happen?

One of the challenges is who awards that degree? What if the home institution no longer exists? 

A question that I saw at a recent event was how long is a credit viable for, will it lose its validity over time, and does that matter, or if it does which subjects would need this.  What about validity of the credits earned. Is the 30 credit course I did ten years ago still able to be stacked into that degree.

Looking at some thoughts from the sector on this, the Open University does not consider study completed more than 16 years ago for credit transfer towards an Open University qualification.

It is common for other universities only to offer credit transfer for study completed in the last five years.

Is the validity of a qualification something we want to leave to individuals institutions? Who should be saying it is sixteen years, or five years, or something in-between.

I did my Economics degree back in the 1980s, and much of what I learnt then hasn’t changed much, to be honest it hadn’t changed much in the previous forty years, let alone the last forty years. Some units I did are probably out of date, thinking about that unit I did on the Economics of European Community for example. Whilst others, such as that module on Economic and Social History probably hasn’t aged. I suspect if I had done computer science, that the stuff I learnt back then was now out of date. However, the skills I gained by learning and studying (economics) have remained relevant to this day.

Does a credit from one institution now mean it is equivalent to a credit from another? Will that be accepted by all institutions. I can see the concept of equality between institutions not being accepted by all institutions.

If we are to really embrace student mobility and the opportunities that the LLE can bring to higher education, we do need to, as a sector, decide how and if we need to stack qualifications, and what is required if a student who has stacked their credentials and wants to be awarded a degree.