CO-CURRICULAR TRANSCRIPTS IN HIGHER EDUCATION: MAJOR ARGUMENTS

Co-Curricular Transcripts in Higher Education: Major Arguments

Ryan Bradshaw
George Mason University

CO-CURRICULAR TRANSCRIPTS IN HIGHER EDUCATION: MAJOR ARGUMENTS

Arguments for Co-curricular Transcripts

Student involvement in campus activities is an important part of student development.
Astin (1999) defines student involvement as the amount of physical and psychological energy
that a student devotes to the academic experience, and includes time spent studying, interacting
with faculty and participating in student organizations as examples of this involvement. Students
who focus all of their energy on coursework will see an increase in their academic performance,
but will struggle to develop soft skills due to their decreased energy focused on extracurricular
activities, and vice-versa (Astin, 1999). Soft skills are actively being sought by employers in
todays economy (Robles, 2012) and are developed both by activities in, but more so by
activities outside of the classroom (Kuh , 1995). Student involvement in campus activities also
has a positive effect on students grades (Kuh, Cruce, Shoup, Kinzie, & Gonyea, 2008) and their
persistence (O'Keeffe, 2013).
Co-curricular transcripts, a way of recording out-of-classroom skill development and
student engagement opportunities students are involved in, have become a new trend in tracking
these experiences. This paper will attempt to address positive and negative aspects of cocurricular transcripts in relation to student engagement on campus and workforce development.
Increased student engagement/involvement
Students who are involved in campus activities outside of the classroom tend to have
better grades (Kuh et al., 2008; Zacherman & Foubert, 2014), have a greater sense of belonging
on campus and drop-out of college less (O'Keeffe, 2013). One recent study showed that students
who were involved in educationally purposeful campus activities, such as working with faculty
members outside of class or working with students of a different ethnicity in a student club, had

CO-CURRICULAR TRANSCRIPTS IN HIGHER EDUCATION: MAJOR ARGUMENTS

an impact of increased a students grade point average (GPA) by 0.4 on a 4.0 scale, a 10%
increase (Kuh et al., 2008). Zacherman and Foubert (2014) also found that a students
involvement in co-curricular activities for just 1-5 hours per week had a net effect of raising the
students GPA by 0.1 on a 4.0 scale. It was also noted that the results were curvilinear and that
students who were too involved, defined as over 20 hours a week of co-curricular activities,
actually saw a negative effect on their GPA (Zacherman & Foubert, 2014). Involvement is
important, but it must be balanced with in-class work.
Students who feel like they belong on campus have a greater chance of persisting through
to graduation (O'Keeffe, 2013). This is particularly true for minority students, students with
disabilities and students from lower socio-economic groups (Kuh, 2009). Many of these students
do not feel engaged in campus activities due to the time constraints of having to work or having
other family commitments, which limit their ability to participate in campus activities outside of
class (O'Keeffe, 2013). Student participation in highly structured extra-curricular activities,
defined as well organized activities with set learning outcomes, are better able to adjust to their
new life on campus and more likely to feel a sense of belonging on campus (Tieu, et al., 2010). It
is important for institutions to find ways to offer involvement opportunities that fit into the busy
lives of some of their students as the positive effects of that involvement may be what keeps that
student in class through graduation.
Student engagement also differs between racial subsets of students and by the type of
institution attended. White students are more likely to be engaged in campus activities than
students from other ethnic backgrounds (Witkow, Gillen-ONeel, & Fuglini, 2012; Kuh, 2009).
Witkow et al. (2012) also found that students who attended community college, as opposed to
four-year institutions, were more likely to live at home, be a minority student and be less

CO-CURRICULAR TRANSCRIPTS IN HIGHER EDUCATION: MAJOR ARGUMENTS

engaged in campus activities. They identified that with the current push by the White House to
increase the number of students attending community colleges, more work will need to be done
to increase engagement in campus activities by these students. As students who are more
engaged in campus tend to have a better sense of belonging, persistence rate and GPA, it is
imperative that institutions create these types of opportunities.
Astin (1999) believes that institutions should foster situations in which students can
develop both academic and extracurricular involvement in campus life. Co-curricular transcripts
offer a way to quantify the involvement in extracurricular activities. Providing a record of a
students engagement in structured campus activities has been suggested as a way to encourage
student involvement, by creating a document students can show prospective employers upon
graduation as proof of the soft skill development opportunities the student has taken advantage of
(Bringle & Hatcher, 1996; King & Anderson, 2004; Kuh, 2009). Students willingness to build
their co-curricular transcripts can also foster involvement in campus life, which in turn increases
the students chances of persisting to graduation.
Developing Skills Employers Seek
Developing soft skills, as opposed to hard skills, can play a large role in whether or not a
student finds a job in their field upon graduation. Soft skills are associated to who we are, not
what we know, and determine how we interact with other people in different environments, while
hard skills are technical competencies we can learn (Robles, 2012). One recent study showed that
an employees long term success on the job was 75% related to their soft skill abilities (Klaus,
2010). Employers are, therefore, looking for a workforce that can communicate with co-workers
and customers and that can adapt to changing environments. Robles (2012), in a survey of

CO-CURRICULAR TRANSCRIPTS IN HIGHER EDUCATION: MAJOR ARGUMENTS

company executives, found that the top soft skills employers were looking for included integrity,
communication, courtesy, responsibility, interpersonal skills, positive attitude, professionalism,
flexibility, teamwork and work ethic. A qualitative survey of business leaders found similar
results, ranking technical knowledge as the number one skill sought in new hires, but then
followed closely by communication skills, teamwork skills, coachability skills, leadership skills,
sales skills, problem-solving skills, organization skills, crisis management skills, and
presentation skills in the second through eleventh spots (Kretovics & McCambridge, 1998). This
matches with the skills that recent graduates looking to become employees believe they need to
land a job: enthusiasm/hard-working, positive personality, interpersonal abilities/teamwork, work
ethic/integrity, and computer/technical literacy (Velasco, 2012).
Employers are having a hard time finding enough candidates who possess the skills they
need, which is where educational institutions, who serve the role of workforce development in
todays society, need to step in (Ellis, Kisling, & Hackworth, 2014). Hard skills are primarily
gained in the classroom, but soft skills can be developed both in and out of it in the university
setting (Kuh, 1995). In a qualitative study involving interviews with students, Kuh (1995) found
that students identified out-of-classroom experiences that required them to use leadership and
organizational skills as most beneficial (such as leading student government or organizations),
followed by interacting with peers (increasing interpersonal competence, humanitarianism and
cognitive complexity) and academic-related activities (applying classroom knowledge to real
world experiences). Kuh concludes that future employment opportunities will require
interpersonal skills (communication, leadership skills, teamwork) and out-of-classroom
experiences provide the opportunities to build those types of skills. Foubert and Grainger (2006)
also found that students who regularly participated in or lead student organizations on a campus

CO-CURRICULAR TRANSCRIPTS IN HIGHER EDUCATION: MAJOR ARGUMENTS

showed a significant increase in developed psychosocial skills, including managing emotions,

moving through autonomy toward interdependence, developing mature interpersonal
relationships, and integrity.
Co-curricular transcripts offer students the opportunity to track their out-of-classroom
soft skill development opportunities and then show them to potential employers (Elias & Drea,
2013). This increases the employability of graduates, as employers have said that they would be
interested in receiving a co-curricular transcript as proof of skill development in an application
(Bryan, Mann, Nelson, & North, 1981). By providing students with a way of showing employers
that they have the skills the employers are looking for, it increases the potential return-oninvestment students see on their degree by increasing their employability, and provides
employers with a qualified workforce.
Student Privacy Challenges
College is meant to be an opportunity to grow as an individual by trying new things and
learning from the experiences (Hinkelman & Luzzo, 2007). If records are being kept of all of the
things students are trying out, students may be more apprehensive to explore their curiosities
about different religions, sexual orientations and more. If they know it is being recorded, they
may avoid trying. This is if the student is even aware of some of the long-term implications of
their actions as many college age students are not capable of thinking about the long term
ramifications of their seemingly innocent actions (Mensch & Wilkie, 2011) particularly
involving technology (Norum & Weagley, 2007). Most co-curricular transcript programs make
recording of participation in events optional for students, but the student has to be aware to optout. This concern and options to decrease the risk need to be developed and students need to be
educated about these potential long term risks (Mensch & Wilkie, 2011).

CO-CURRICULAR TRANSCRIPTS IN HIGHER EDUCATION: MAJOR ARGUMENTS

The security of the data is another concern. Institutions aim to keep data on student
activities private, however, most co-curricular transcripts are kept on online, web-accessed
portals, which are more susceptible to hacking (Mensch & Wilkie, 2011). Additional safe-guards
and data security procedures, in line with the stricter controls used for academic transcripts, need
to be developed. The data being collected is equally personal in nature and if compromised could
be detrimental to students. For example, if data was hacked and a list of students who attended a
LGBTQ info session being posted online for all to see, it could be damaging to a students
relationship with friends and family, or to their future career prospects. The student was simply
trying to self-explore, which is what college is for (Hinkelman & Luzzo, 2007), and this risk of
compromise could prevent him/her from doing so.
Students also tend to have loose standards in terms of their own personal data protection,
typically due to the fact that they are uninformed of the potential long-term consequences, which
make them more likely to release more information than is prudent (Mensch & Wilkie, 2011;
Norum & Weagley, 2007). Institutions need to educate students about proper data security and
develop policies and procedures (Mensch & Wilkie, 2011; Norum & Weagley, 2007) on this
topic.
Conclusion
As higher education continues to struggle to help students succeed to graduation
(O'Keeffe, 2013) and employers continue to find a shortage of qualified workers (Ellis et al.,
2014), institutions need to find ways to help students gain the skills employers seek and push
students towards graduation. Co-curricular transcripts are not an end-all solution to these
challenges, however, they are a beneficial tool students attain their goals in academics and
careers.

CO-CURRICULAR TRANSCRIPTS IN HIGHER EDUCATION: MAJOR ARGUMENTS

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