Griffith is a member of the consortium of fourteen Australian Universities that successfully tendered to DEST to develop a single agreed template for an Australian Diploma Supplement (DS). The consortium is led by the University of New England, the University of Melbourne and the Australian National University.

The Diploma Supplement is a European initiative which aims to describe a student's higher education qualification in an easily understandable way and relate it to the higher education system within which it was issued. Diploma Supplements typically provide information in eight categories:

1. Information identifying the holder of the qualification
2. Information identifying the qualification
3. Information on the level of the qualification
4. Information on the contents and results gained
5. Information on the function of the qualification
6. Additional information (any additional information not included above but relevant to the purposes of assessing the nature, level and usage of the qualification)
7. Certification of the supplement
8. Information on the national higher education system

The Diploma Supplement arose out of the work of the Bologna Process and has been widely implemented across Europe. The Bologna Process (named after the historic Bologna Declaration signed in 1999) involves 45 European countries undertaking a series of reforms intended to create an integrated European higher education area by 2010. Signatories to the agreement have agreed to work towards greater consistency in areas such as degree structures, credit transfer and quality assurance systems.

• View sample drafts of an Australian Diploma Supplements
• The following University of Nottingham Diploma Supplement exemplifies a UK model

DEST states that implementation of the Diploma Supplement in Australia would mean Australian awards are more likely to be well understood internationally, increasing Australian graduates' international mobility for further study or employment purposes and sharpening further Australia's competitiveness in the international education export market. Adoption of the Diploma Supplement in Australia would also support the achievement of the common goal agreed to by Ministers attending the Asia-Pacific Education Ministers' Meeting in April 2006, and expressed in the Brisbane Communique, of increasing greater student and academic mobility and transferability of qualifications. For more information view the Brisbané Communique Initiative

The Australian Diploma Supplement consortium website provides details of the project's objectives, organisation, outcomes and key questions to address. There are a number of sub-projects attached to the main work plan that include reviewing DS progress to date within the European Higher Education Area; an international survey of documentation provided to graduates by universities and colleges outside of the European Higher Education Area and assessment of the impact of the Bologna Process and the European Diploma Supplement on national and institutional policies. In addition there will be a national survey on what information is currently provided on documentation for university or college graduates together with case studies of institutional student data systems and others. For more information you can view a good brief description of the Diploma Supplement

For a more comprehensive look at the DS including details about what it contains look at the
UK Higher Education Europe Unit's Guide to the Diploma Supplement

View more information on the Bologna Process and Australia Next Steps