The National Qualifications Framework and the Universities.

This monograph addresses difficulties with integrating New Zealand university degree qualifications into standards established for secondary education and non-university tertiary education under the National Qualifications Framework resulting from the Education Amendment Act (1990). An introduction, Part 1, reviews the development of the framework and identifies major objections of the Vice Chancellors' Committee including the perceived incompatibility of the framework's unit standards with the nature and aims of most university degree courses. Part 2 identifies and briefly discusses each of the following perceived problem areas in the new framework: (1) the behaviorist/reductionist definition of unit standards and their implications for course design; (2) the separation of unit standards from the course design process; (3) the registration of elements/objectives; (4) the association of performance criteria with course elements rather than with the assessment tasks that with course elements; (5) lack of recognition of research findings on the transfer of generic skills; (6) the incompatibility of the framework for integrating unit standards with the notion of excellence; (7) the disruptive effect of unit-standard methodology on the coherence and integrity of a university degree; (8) the difficulty of assigning academic units to a level in the framework; (9) the incompatibility of the framework for integrating postgraduate university programs; and (10) different philosophies on credit transfer and the recognition of prior learning. Part 3 proposes an alternative dual structure covering university and non-university qualifications and development of systems for dealing with movements between the two. (DB)