Higher Education
The Learning Records Service (LRS) was established to streamline the collection, handling and sharing of information on learning and achievement between individual learners and education and training organisations.
Pilots of our services in England (external link) have shown the potential benefits of the Service to the Higher Education (HE) sector, particularly for improving administrative efficiency, and providing better information to students.
Our services to Higher Education
The internet-based Learner Register Organisation Portal assigns Unique Learner Numbers (ULNs) to individuals over the age of 14 in education and training. The service is available across the education sector in England, Wales and Northern Ireland and can be accessed by universities and colleges which have signed up as Learner Registration Bodies (LRBs).
The ULN enables students to build a lifelong record of their learning participation and achievements (the Personal Learning Record), which they can access and choose to share with learning providers and third parties.
A ULN field has been established in both the Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA) and University and College Admissions Service (UCAS) data sets and, if your institution is submitting Individualised Learner Records (ILRs) directly to the Skills Funding Agency for funding purposes, the ULN became a mandatory field in September 2010.
Some pilots of the LRS have been carried out by UCAS, HESA and seven Higher Education institutions (HEIs), sponsored by the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) and the Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC). These pilots tested the benefits of the Service in the Higher Education sector. The
first phase reported in Autumn 2010 (external link), and a second phase involving further work by UCAS and HESA is due to publish in the third quarter of 2011.
We are also encouraging HEIs to register with the LRS and start to use the service to verify and allocate ULNs to students who do not already have one.
Sign-up as an LRB.
Once we have received your application and your organisation has been verified, our LRS Customer Helpdesk will contact you and provide you with login details. Before you receive these, it is useful to consider the ways in which you will access the service and prepare your university or college to allocate ULNs to your students.
Now your Super User will have access to the Secure Portal and can start to use the service.
Higher Education Advisory Group (HEAG)
The service has established an Advisory Group which is Chaired by Professor Sir Robert Burgess (VC of the University of Leicester) and comprises senior representatives of key stakeholder organisations in the HE sector responsible for policy, funding and the delivery of HE across the UK. Universities and colleges are also represented on the group. The group ensures the interests of Higher Education are properly represented in the development of the Learning Records Service.
For more information and support
Related links
External links
