The Council has considered the remarks made at the Discussion of this Report on 9 December 2008 (Reporter, p. 361). It has consulted the General Board who have commented as follows.
In the Discussion reference was made to the University's 'degree awarding powers'. The Report is concerned, however, with the award of Diplomas and Certificates and not with Degrees and proposes a framework for incorporation of certain Diplomas and Certificates as University, rather than locally certificated, awards. There is no suggestion in the Report that holders of these awards will be entitled to any credit towards a Cambridge B.A. Degree. Should they wish to apply for admission as undergraduate students, they will need to do so in the normal way. There are no implications so far as fair access is concerned as part-time provision does not feature in Cambridge's access agreement with OFFA.
There are no proposals to change the status of the 12,000 or so students who are taking courses towards these awards at any one time, nor the nature of the provision. The courses will remain part-time and have no residence requirements. They will be open to non-members of the University; such persons will not matriculate nor be required to become members of a College.
The arrangements for course approval and course changes, through the General Board and their Education Committee, will be the same as those that apply to the Triposes and the regulations for specific subjects for the M.Phil. Degree, which are announced in the Reporter, or, should some major change be proposed, through a Report of the General Board or the Faculty Board concerned to the Regent House. The quality assurance arrangements for these awards will be directly comparable to those in place for other University awards and will be supplemented, as the Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Education indicated in his remarks, by involving cognate Faculties. The proposal is indeed in accordance with the QAA's views, as expressed in their last Audit, but, as indicated in Paragraph 5 of the Report, the General Board had already reached the view that awards should become awards of the University. Although it was suggested that there should be a clear separation between these awards and the University's other awards, the General Board believe that there is no case for proceeding in this way which would only serve to increase confusion as to where responsibility for particular qualifications rests.
Proposed Regulation 10 gives the General Board powers to permit inward credit transfer, in line with current practice at the Institute of Continuing Education. Quality assurance procedures for recognition of such credit are being reviewed by the Board. The General Board have agreed that it would be appropriate to allow a maximum of one-third of the credit needed for a Certificate or Diploma to be gained elsewhere. Recognition of credit would not be automatic; it would be from certain recognized institutions only, and would need to be in appropriate subject areas and at an appropriate academic level.
There is no intention that all provision offered by the Institute of Continuing Education and other institutions will lead to awards. As the Director of Continuing Education and Lifelong Learning indicated in his remarks, much of such provision does not, and is not intended to, lead to a qualification. The General Board see no reason why the nature and level of the awards should be misunderstood by other bodies: the wording to be used in the Diploma or the Certificate is set out in Regulation 14 in the Annex to the Report, and the transcripts provided to candidates on completion of their courses will make clear the nature of the qualification.
The Council is submitting a Grace to the Regent House (Grace 4, p. 476) for the approval of the recommendations in this Report. It is considering a change to its Notice on the classes of persons qualified to matriculate (Statutes and Ordinances, p. 171) in respect of Diplomas and Certificates.