The report card, named the Higher Education Achievement Record (HEAR), aims to supersede what its backers call the “blunt instrument” of upper seconds and firsts by giving graduates detailed reports on their achievement in individual modules in addition to information on their awards and extra-curricular activities.

Universities across the country could then adopt a standardised template for their transcripts, something supporters say will make it easier to verify student achievements and help employers differentiate between graduates with the same class of degree. Participation in sports, music and societies could all be recorded on the report as well, in order to give more depth to the report compared to a single grade certificate.

Backed by Universities UK, a higher education advocacy association of which Cambridge is a member, the scheme has been adopted by at least 90 universities and another twenty are said to be interested. Initially intended to supplement degree classifications, the eventual aim is for the traditional system to be replaced by the more detailed HEAR. The documents, which may span up to six pages, will be held online to allow students to securely submit the reports to employers when applying for jobs.

The universities minister David Willetts has given strong support to the scheme, referring to the current classification system as “incredibly crude” and arguing that the HEAR will recognise students “as partners in their education”.

A number of top universities, including the University of Edinburgh and King’s College London, are in the process of implementing the scheme, but ten out of twenty four other Russell Group institutions, including Oxford, are staying away.

Cambridge has declined to give reasons for its rejection of the scheme, but Oxford justified its decision as down to “a lack of interest from employers” in the report card. One of the HEAR’s key backers commented that the refusal of the two universities to join the scheme is down to both seeking “gratification” from “being different”.

Sir Robert Burgess, vice-chancellor of Leicester University and the chair of the group behind the HEAR, argued that institutions would eventually be forced to adopt the scheme as students pressure their universities for recognition of their wider achievements. He described the current system as being characterised by a “damaging obsession” with firsts and upper seconds.

Commenting on Cambridge's decision, Pembroke second year Abby Jitendra said, "employers already have a wealth of information about your extracurricular activities from your CV. What this shows, worryingly, is the growing tendency to think of a degree as a passport into employment, to see education as a means to an end rather than a 'useful' pursuit in itself - that's what I think Cambridge is rejecting by not implementing the HEAR scheme, and rightfully so".