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Despite their rapid global proliferation, there are not enough studies exploring how national qualifications frameworks (NQFs) resonate with different stakeholders. This study aimed at gathering insight from academic staff about their experience with applying the qualifications framework of the United Arab Emirate (UAE). Using a mixed-method design, 788 participants completed an online questionnaire, and 15 were interviewed to obtain feedback from the academic staff of two of the largest higher education institutions in the UAE, namely the UAE University (UAEU) and the Higher Colleges of Technology (HCT). Findings of this study revealed that key facilitating factors relate to leadership support, hands-on guidance, and continuous dialogue among stakeholders. On the other hand, the study identified a lack of sufficient guidelines, resources, and professional development as some of the main challenges that could hinder effective implementation of the UAE's NQF. Findings of this study can aid policymakers in facilitating effective implementation of the framework in higher education institutions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Launched in 2008 as a 'Common Reference Framework' including eight levels of learning and three descriptors that aimed at providing a 'translation grid' between national qualifications, the European Qualifications Framework (EQF) aims at numerous educational reforms such as promoting the learning outcomes orientation, transparency of qualifications and fostering mobility across national borders, employment sectors and educational sectors. More than 10 years after, it is time to re-address these expectations and to question whether and, if so, in which ways the EQF has actually provided an impetus for the numerous reforms that were expected to be initiated by implementing it. Reviewing policy documents, evaluation results and research on the EQF and therewith-linked national qualifications frameworks, there is little evidence that the EQF solved the challenges it was developed for. Instead, findings suggest that it might be time to de-mystify qualifications frameworks as a panacea and reveal it as a paradigmatic case of travelling educational reforms around the globe that results in institutional isomorphism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Through an ethnographic exploration of policy documents, this paper aims to expose how outcome-oriented education standards gained international hegemonic status in the Bologna Process. Taking inspiration in the concept of hegemony and by connecting the invisible power of hegemony to soft governance, the paper shows how the outcome-based modular curriculum gained hegemonic power by means of the infrastructure of the reform. Centring on the movement from political agendas within the Bologna Process to the implementation in a national context using Denmark as a case, the paper tracks the transformation from an input- and content-driven curriculum to an outcome- and objectives-driven curriculum and the transition from a semestrial timeframe structure to a modular block structure. The paper shows how consent and legitimisation is manufactured through the infrastructure of the Bologna Process consisting of communication paths, standardisation and follow-up mechanisms such as benchmarking through graphs and frameworks for reporting. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of the research is to observe the existing approaches to qualifications framework development in the sphere of land management, cadastres and real estate management, as well as the qualifications framework adaptation to European system. The relevance of the issue is related to the specific professional and institutional problems facing Russian educational establishments engaged in personnel training in the given sphere. The authors demonstrate the qualifications framework development in the land management sector regarding it as a key mechanism of educational mobility and the router for knowledge acquisition and updates. The qualifications framework is referred to as a systematic and structured description of recognized qualifications. The accepted worldwide methodology of organizing the educational process and quality control system is given. The emphasis is on the need to comply the qualifications framework with the Russian State Educational Standards.

During the last 25 years international mobility has become paramount in higher education. International and national authorities and higher education institutions have set-up effective structures to facilitate and implement this process. It has become part of a higher education modernization process which obtained a serious push with the start and development of the Bologna Process in Europe as of 1999. However the same authorities have been far less active in finding answers on how to facilitate this process in terms of curriculum development, quality assurance and recognition. The initiative was largely left to individuals supported by their employing organizations. These have proven to be visionaries. Their efforts have led to competence and learning outcomes based descriptors for meta-qualifications frameworks and to important reference points / meta profiles for subject areas. Academics have been strongly involved in developing the latter and by doing so have offered a more sustainable basis for implementing reforms based on the student-centred approach, which is so relevant for today’s world in terms of employability and citizenship. The most recent development has been the development of Tuning sectoral qualifications frameworks which allow for bridging the two European meta-frameworks, the EQF for Lifelong Learning and the QF for the European Higher Education Area, with sectoral and degree profiles. This can be seen as a breakthrough initiative because it offers us a transparent model which is developed and owned by academics and can easily be used by all involved in programme design and development, quality enhancement and assurance and recognition of (periods of) studies.

This article provides analysis and a reflection on basic measurable properties of qualifications, modules, units and other groups of learning outcomes, as a theoretical base for their multidimensional classifications in emerging reforming qualifications frameworks. Learning outcomes, as the main elements of a qualification, are written and organised within units of learning outcomes and different groups, giving a transparent structure to the qualification from the user's point of view (students, employers, teachers, etc.). Units of learning outcomes, modules and qualifications have a set of basic measurable properties, for example: reference level, volume of workload, academic or professional profile and quality. Reference level denotes the depth and the complexity of the acquired learning outcomes, while volume denotes the total amount of workload in ideal conditions, and profiles the field of work and study associated with this. Quality denotes the reliability of the specified reference level, volume and profile of learning outcomes. It is particularly important to take account of these reflections when considering the impact of the implementation of reforming qualifications frameworks, quality assurance, validation of non-formal and informal learning, recognition of learning outcomes and qualifications, and other European tools in qualifications systems.

Copyright of International Journal of E-Learning & Distance Education is the property of Canadian Network for Innovation in Education and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This article examines the influence of the European qualifications framework – a key European lifelong learning policy instrument for improving employability, comparability and mobility in the European educational space – on the establishment of national qualifications frameworks in Europe. The European qualifications framework and national qualifications frameworks are analysed through the lens of the process of the Europeanisation of education, and they are embedded in the broader context of the development of national qualifications frameworks in Anglo-Saxon and developing countries around the world. Against this background and through an analysis of established national qualifications frameworks in four European countries, i.e. Denmark, Germany, Portugal and Slovenia, we argue that the national qualifications frameworks in these countries cannot be understood to be tools for the deregulation, marketisation and commodification of education and knowledge, although this could be interpreted as one of the underlying hidden assumptions of the European qualifications framework recommendation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The construction of European education policy builds on a widely shared goal of transparency in qualifications, upheld by the popular narrative of mobile students endowed with scholarships from the EU Erasmus programme, which allow them to transfer credit points between universities and across national borders. EU education policy is increasingly inscribed in National Qualification Frameworks (NQF). Their European umbrella is coined the European Qualification Framework (EQF), which is linked to a discourse on or even shift to Learning Outcomes; functioning as a tool for the displacement of input to output categories in education systems with a view to make qualifications more transparent. This form of governance situates Learning Outcomes as a tool for policy reform that intentionally should affect all educational and administrative levels of European education. The article shows that the multitude of governance instruments used to promote a shift to Learning Outcomes are so varied that EU education policy has no apparent need of new instruments for this purpose. The fact that Learning Outcomes are linked to EU policy instruments of the Open Method of policy-Coordination and destined for several sectors of education, increases the likelihood that they will be translated into modified learning practices. Yet, there is a danger that governance of Learning Outcomes succumbs to a pitfall of declaratorily placing Learning Outcomes in the middle of learning practices in all subsectors of education, without sufficiently proving their real novelty and regulatory functions.

This article analyses the development of the first national qualifications framework in Germany (Deutscher QualifikationsrahmenorDQR). In this case, a qualifications framework, which is supposedly outcome-based, had to be adapted to a highly input-oriented qualification system. This raises the question, how clashing claims and governance approaches can be joined? The study draws upon the assumption that the discourse on the DQR development is driven by cognitive constructions of relevant policy-makers and that these mental constructions can be uncovered by an in-depth analysis of discourse-related paperwork, such as proposals and drafts, as well as transcripts of interviews with key actors. The analysis bears empirical evidence that many collectively shared patterns of interpretations remain stable, even in the face of a quite drastic impetus to change. This is especially the case for patterns linked to the persistent input-based paradigm of governance. Furthermore, new patterns of interpretations are revealed, which support the rising legitimacy of instruments in line with outcome-oriented governance. Arguments for outcome-based governance are, moreover, an integral part of the policy discourses around the DQR and might lead to nuances of change for new and overhauled qualifications in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the quality assurance processes associated with implementation of the Papua New Guinea National Qualifications Framework (PNGNQF) for programs of Divine Word University (DWU). The paper explains the background to the PNGNQF and explores policies and practices for quality assurance. Consideration is given to a range of programs provided by faculties of Education, Arts and Social Sciences, Health Sciences and Business and Informatics at diploma, advanced diploma, bachelor degree, postgraduate certificate, master degree and doctoral degree levels. The paper discusses challenges for the mix of competency-based (vocational) and higher education programs offered in a variety of delivery modes (face-to-face, blended and online). It examines the challenges in meeting the demand for accrediting programs of affiliated higher education institutions and providing programs for public sector middle-level and senior-level managers and benchmarking them to the PNGNQF. A new Higher Education Act (2014) for PNG has come into effect and a Department of Higher Education, Research, Science and Technology has been established to replace the Commission of Higher Education which previously set and monitored standards. While DWU can, under its own DWU Act (1999), self-accredit its programs, it prides itself on upholding the standards set by the national government and seeks to maintain qualifications and nomenclature which are consistent with national, regional and international standards and conventions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The European Qualifications Framework (EQF) was introduced in 2008 as a ‘meta-framework’ or common reference point for national qualifications frameworks in Europe, a function for which, with some caveats, it has been pragmatically successful. It has also been used with variable success to support the development or referencing of sectoral qualifications frameworks, although questions remain about how these interlink with national frameworks. Use of the EQF as a tool for allocating levels to individual qualifications or to aid qualification development has been conspicuously less successful, due both to these applications requiring more detail than is present in the EQF and in some cases to developers’ lack of fluency in working with qualification frameworks in general. Testing the EQF via a range of international projects also points to some flaws in the detail of the framework itself, particularly in the way that it represents competence and to a lesser extent knowledge. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The europeanization process of higher education system being implemented in the European Community countries continues to mobilize scholars and researchers creating new forms of scientific investment. It is a process that tries to create an out-and-out European Space for Higher Education, strictly coordinated with the national ones, able to link university, research, skill and production. The paper focuses on science of education field and problems regarding the capacity of action and coordination of the educational research at an international level. Some clarifications are delivered about strategical needs through which the various scientific communities may actively influence the creation of an European community for the pedagogical research.

Copyright of Journal of Higher Education & Science / Yüksekögretim ve Bilim Dergisi is the property of Zonguldak Bulent Ecevit Universitesi and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Abstract: The transition from teacher education to work in schools has been described as an “epistemic clash”. Teacher educators'', novice teachers'' and experienced teachers'' valuation of the academic, practical and normative demands of teaching are compared using survey data from teacher education and schools. All groups value academic knowledge and practical skills highly. Teacher educators take a more positive attitude toward inclusion, and differ in their views of the normative demands of teaching. The role of teacher education as a corrective to the contemporary demands made of schools through political and international policy initiatives is emphasized. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Critics often see the European Bologna Process as a univocal standardisation of higher education. By exploring how different qualifications frameworks project different social imaginaries of globalisation, this article takes a different stance. The overarching qualifications framework of the Bologna Process rests on a socially constituted and contested concept of globalisation as a change towards a more diverse and unforeseeable world, which calls for the development of flexible, lifelong learners with a broad knowledge base and strong democratic competencies. Although this social imaginary is widely known, I argue that it is also highly contested. For example, the Danish qualifications framework of 2003 projects a social imaginary of globalisation as a change towards a smaller and more predictable world, which enables a novel and more efficient alignment of the curriculum towards specific professional needs, and where the development of a broad knowledge base and democratic competencies are no longer prioritised. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Qualifications frameworks are political instruments that are supposed to facilitate the assessment of learning outcomes. They are hoped to be drivers for change since they are meant to provide the impetus for a number of fundamental reforms required in education and training systems. These considerations frame the design and implementation of coherent reforms, strategies and instruments. Thus, there are conceptual, political and procedural issues which are equally worthy of attention. Focusing on the European area, this paper addresses the question of whether the development of qualifications frameworks yields the anticipated benefits of the ‘shift to learning outcomes’. The aim of the contribution is to review previous experience with learning outcomes and its links with qualifications frameworks as well as to analyse the current trends and challenges within the European countries. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The impact of the economic crisis in Serbia has been rather mild in terms of impact on the contraction of output, but it has been very severe in terms of job losses, which have seen an already difficult labour market situation deteriorate significantly. Under such circumstances, employment growth, alongside a reduction in absolute and relative poverly, needs to be defined as an explicit final objective of any development strategy for the next decade. Macroeconomic and sectoral policies and institutional reforms need to create an environment which is conducive to job growth. Labour taxes for low wage labour need to be substantially reduced, while making work pay policies need to be introduced. Education policy should improve the quality and efficiency of education and tackle the growing skills gap, while more funds are required for active labour market programmes. Social dialogue should be given more prominence, while collective bargaining in the private sector should additionally be encouraged. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper identifies three, overlapping, phases of restructuring of New Zealand's system of vocational education and training (VET). These are the meritocratic, the market and the managed. In very different ways, each phase has been designed to increase the propensity of students from all social backgrounds to participate in VET. This paper contributes to debates about the impact of reform of VET in New Zealand by reporting on the results of a study that assesses the propensity of students from different social backgrounds to progress to VET in New Zealand. In doing so, the paper assesses the extent to which VET is ‘for other people's children’ and responds to recent calls for research in VET that foregrounds ethnicity, gender and social class. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper presents a critical approach to the likely consequences of introducing National Qualifications Frameworks. The author argues that they could actually lead to new inequalities, due to the priority they give to improving the flexibility and transparency of learning programmes. By presenting qualification levels as if they were equal rungs on a ladder, NQFs can mask the hard work of teaching and learning that is required if students are to progress. Likewise, in minimising the real differences between the learning required for different occupations, learners may acquire qualifications that have little value on the labour market. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents a case study which reflects on the three phases of the qualification frameworks (QFs) namely introduction, capacity building, and implementation, in Botswana. It states that the authorization of the Vocational Training Act in 1998 has resulted to the development of the Botswana National Vocational Qualifications Framework (BNVQF). It discusses the potential of QF to raise employment opportunities and develop dynamic collaboration among industry and training providers.

The article presents a paper which focuses on the success of Scottish Credit and Qualifications Framework (SCQF), which is attributed to its character as communications framework. It says that the existing education and training system is the starting point of SCQF which offers a tool for change. It also mentions that SCQF succeeded due to the support of powerful stakeholders such as the higher education (HE) institutions which are powerful in countries like Scotland.

This essay examines the impact of the Bologna Process on the development of short-cycle higher education in Europe, noting that the integration of short-cycle qualifications within the Qualifications Framework for the European Higher Education Area, combined with the critical place allotted to those programs in national lifelong learning frameworks, has charged short-cycle programs and qualifications with a dual responsibility: to train graduates for employment as well as prepare them for future studies. The challenges faced by European countries in creating programs and qualifications that meet this dual responsibility are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The purpose of this article is to explore the development of qualifications frameworks as a key element in the Bologna process, which aims to develop a European Higher Education Area by 2010. By setting up descriptors of learning outcomes, a European qualifications framework is intended as an instrument that enables Europe to coordinate and exchange qualifications. Furthermore, the article analyses the proposal of a national qualifications framework in Norway and institutional responses to it. Despite general support for the idea of a framework, the analysis shows that the institutions question the possibility of a qualifications framework that its all types of educational programmes. With reference to curriculum theory the article concludes that the idea of a qualifications framework based on measurable learning outcomes represents a turn towards an instrumental curriculum approach in higher education, in contrast to a traditional curriculum approach which foregrounds disciplinary content and its mastery. Drawing on institutional theory the article also questions the possible impact of qualifications frameworks in higher education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article suggests that the public higher education 'quality assurance' systems which have been erected over the last 20 years or so rest on flimsy public policy and intellectual foundations. It asks if input/output relationships in higher education can be identified to the extent implied by current models of public higher education 'quality assurance'. The article proposes a moratorium on any further development and extension of public higher education 'quality assurance' systems until several fundamental issues have been satisfactorily addressed. It calls for a new higher education performance evaluation paradigm in which the standards achieved by new graduates in areas such as logical thinking are the prime candidates for independent validation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]