Bridging the divide: Developing interoperable learner record systems

This paper describes the progress made by the SHELL Project, a partnership between further (FE) and higher education (HE) institutions. During the period 20022005, the SHELL Project developed shared business processes between partner institutions, and transferred student record data electronically between partners using XML. A learner record database was created to bring together and store details of qualifications achieved in a range of institution for each learner. Access to these learner records was achieved by the creation of a web based portal. The experiences of this project and implications for future developments are discussed.