April 20, 2011:  What's Next:  Bar Codes?

The academic transcript has long been higher education's FDA label.  Similar to the labels on Hellman's mayonnaise, for example, the academic transcript provides a snapshot of what a university "put into" its graduate.  Recently, though, the FDA has taken the information shared on food labels to insane lengths, burying the consumer in a mountain of confusing details and, at times, frustrating small print.

It looks like the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, will do the same with its academic transcripts. The Chronicle of Higher Education offers an overview of UNC, Chapel Hill's, new transcript, which adds class size, median grades, and schedule point average to a student's transcript. The Chronicle dismisses too quickly how this strategy smells offensively like Ohio State University justifying its football team over Texas Christian University, or some other "little sister of the poor" (see January 1, 2011, blog), based upon strength of schedule and "close losses."  Perhaps this over-the-top idea from The Cronk is not that far away.

I hypothesize that most consumers use FDA labels minimally.  A woman is in the mayonnaise aisle, deciding between Hellman's and Kraft.  She probably makes the decision based upon a few factors:  Name brand?  Check!  Grams of Fat? Check!  Sodium levels?  Check!  Price, Check!  Sold!  I seldom see a customer poring over these labels at length, blocking the aisle with their cart (thank goodness).

Outside of some elite graduate programs, I suspect the audiences reviewing transcripts are doing the same:  Name brand?  Depaul, check!  Relevant coursework?  pre-law, check!  Average semester load?  18 credits, check!  Let's consider the graduate.

For employment purposes, the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, admits that it "didn't consult any employers for feedback."  I'm sure the scrutiny of transcripts across professions ranges widely, but I doubt many hiring decisions are made because Joe Schmoo was in the 15th percentile in his biology classes at Butler University, while Jane Flo-Schmoo was only in the 35th percentile in her biology classes at Ball State University.

Even within higher education hiring, the use of transcripts is limited.  Faculty credentials to teach relevant courses present the only cases where higher education typically looks at transcripts in depth at the course level.  In these cases, it is often a visual check for passing the course; with sophisticated computer programs able to find the "credentialed class" (much like the programs that sort resumes by finding relevant keywords), there's a good chance that no dean or chair will see that level of detail provided by UNC, Chapel Hill.

Finally, for those who go into higher education as non-faculty, the transcript request is usually added after an offer has been accepted, and then only to confirm actual degrees listed on a resume.  In that case, the transcript probably never goes beyond the eyes of a human resources representative.

I'm sure North Carolina, Chapel Hill, wants to monitor internally which courses and faculty are too easy. This is an important and noble effort.  However, someone has to convince me that the typical consumer of the transcript cares for that information.  And if we do, then maybe we need to create our own higher education FDA, perhaps the Field and Degree Association, to ensure this is being done (relatively) consistently across the industry.