Like it or not, an important part of any college diploma is the reputation of the school that awards it.

FORBES: For-Profit Universities: The Yugos of Higher Education

This not only increases the cost of getting a diploma--it leads many students to drop out of college altogether.

FORBES: Magazine Article

Imagine that the graduate school in question is constitutionally forbidden from receiving any form of government aid, that it typically requires three years of full-time schooling for the diploma, that the nature of the schooling bears almost no resemblance to the job in question, and that the pay for graduates is far lower than other professions.

FORBES: The Seminary Bubble

The wide, and often confusing, range of current vocational options would be covered by the planned diploma system it has proposed.

BBC: High-quality training is available, young people say

Miss Hall gave birth to daughter Amelia at the age of 15, then went on to complete a First Diploma for IT Practitioners before she started studying for her A-levels.

BBC: George Shopland

But this protean diploma is unlikely to meet it, according to Alan Smithers and Pamela Robinson of Buckingham University, the report's authors.

ECONOMIST: Qualifications

On a practical level, it will be hard to decide what contribution out-of-school activities make to the diploma.

ECONOMIST: Education

The medal will be sold later at Heritage Auctions in New York together with the cheque and diploma Crick received as part of the prize and one of his lab coats, which has "various stains on it".

BBC: Francis Crick and sketch of the DNA structure

So far only one private school, Wellington College, says it will teach the diploma, and then only in engineering, widely expected to be the most rigorous of the vocational subjects.

ECONOMIST: Qualifications