The Diploma Supplement as a Tool for Quality Assurance and Relevance

Abstract

For the present and emerging needs of tertiary students and graduates in the twenty-first Century, the condensed academic transcript is no longer adequate to facilitate equivalency recognition for students transferring internationally for further study or for graduates seeking employment or career progression beyond borders. To meet this gap, a comprehensive Diploma Supplement emerged from a number of international meetings and agreements since the 1980s, in particular the Bologna process, the Lisbon Recognition Convention, the World Declaration on Higher Education for the twenty-first century and the Sorbonne Declaration. Many countries and individual institutions of higher education have now introduced Diploma Supplements, or similar, that provide details such as the level of qualification, mode of study, regarding learning outcomes, knowledge, skills and objectives of the course, grading information and grades distribution. The existence of these comprehensive documents enables other institutions of learning elsewhere to gain a clearer background to previous studies and thereby expedite decisions regarding equivalency. For prospective employers in other countries, the document provides a clearer picture of the learning undertaken by the graduate. Update within the MENA region of such expanded graduation documents has been slow. This chapter provides a historical perspective regarding evolution process toward Diploma Supplements and issues associated broad introduction regionally across the Middle East.

Attachment 1: Example of Diploma Supplement from American College Cyprus