XCRI-CAP and the Higher Education Achievement Report
The Higher Education Achievement Report (HEAR) is a means for recording student achievement in higher education (HE) and is intended to provide more detailed information about a student’s learning and achievement than the traditional degree classification system. It will be issued to students on graduation and will include and extend the existing record of academic achievement - the academic transcript - and the European Diploma Supplement.
The XCRI-CAP 1.2 specification is re-used in the HEAR XML data specification. The HEAR technical specification defines an XML format for the content of the HEAR. It is intended to enable the interoperability of descriptions of the Higher Education achievement of learners between Higher Education providers, employers, brokers and other relevant organisations. It is compliant with the CEN European Learner Mobility Workshop Agreement CWA 16132. Re-use of XCRI-CAP was part of meeting the HEAR XML data specification's design goals and requirements.
A primary difference between use of XCRI-CAP in information aimed at potential students and in the HEAR is that the former is a representation of what a provider intends to offer in the future, whereas the latter is a historical record of an individual's achievement. However, both types of information are typically targeted at non-academic communities or the general public, and therefore there is likely to be significant overlap of the information made available. Re-use of course advertising information within a HEAR means that the mode of expression is intended to be suitable for a lay audience rather than a strictly academic one.