The laws of those country dictate that the student has a right to see any recommendations or references given, which has led to a 'hidden code' developing where claiming that someone is 'good' on a reference actually means not very good at all, and only 'excellent, wonderful, outstanding' and other OTT expressions mean anything very positive.

Would they just go all out and write 'in all honestly I cannot recommend this person' - I don't even think DH is allowed to do that according to the laws of the country we are in. Firstly, how would they deal with that situation (assuming that DH can't easily wiggle out of this responsibility to write some sort of recommendation)? Would they try to make the recommendation as half-hearted as possible, in the hope that the intended reader would understand this candidate is actually not a good choice. So DH is wondering if there is anyone here who has experience with writing recommendations for UCAS or someone who deals with university admissions in the UK. S/he deals with his/her own culture badly enough - dealing with another culture would surely be disastrous. Although the student took a class with DH he can't remember him/her that well personally because s/he attended so few sessions - but s/he was notably antisocial during those few lessons. This student is surly and uncooperative with staff AND fellow students, does not appear to like people at all, does the bare minimum of work, and once physically attacked a professor. However, now a student who has acquired a rather negative reputation has asked him to write a recommendation. In most cases writing a recommendation that is both honest and positive is quite easy - generally it is only the more able and confident students who are interested in going abroad. If the student wants to go to a British university the recommendation would go via UCAS.

One of the duties he has ended up taking on is writing academic recommendations for students who want to do a semester or year at another university in a different country, using the ERASMUS programme for example - this recommendation then becomes part of their application. I'm keeping all the details deliberately vague to avoid the risk of any parties here being identified. DH teaches at a small university in mainland Europe.

Ucas references example