Improving business processes and services is a challenge that can be met by a model-driven approach to service design and development. Th is approach rests on defining refe rence models of the enterprise business processes that will become the drivers of se rvice frameworks. As part of a national program for developing such models within a Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) framework for e-learning and research in higher education, a canonical reference model for course validation was used to demonstrate the feasibility of the approach. Course validation processes in four UK Highe r Education Institutions (HEIs) were analysed and modell ed using interviews and process documentation. Each institution’s process was modelled with UML Activity Diagrams and its domain information with Class Diagrams. The four models were synthesized into a single canonical reference model of the validation process. This required resolving process model structures and elem ent granularity. Synthesi s of the canonical model demonstrated a methodological basis for developing service specifications, within a SOA framework that could serve all institutions in the sector.