STEPHEN ADAM stephenadam@orange.fr

1. SEEC CONFERENCE: CREDIT CHANGES AND CHALLENGESLONDON, 10TH DECEMBER 2010CURRENT ISSUES ASSOCIATED WITH THE THE TWO CREDIT-LINKED META-FRAMEWORKS - THE OVERARCHING FRAMEWORK OF QUALIFICATIONS FOR THE EUROPEAN HIGHER EDUCATION AREA (FQ-EHEA) AND THE EUROPEAN QUALIFICATIONS FRAMEWORK FOR LIFELONG LEARNING (EQF) Do we have a European surfeit of meta-frameworks = framework chaos? Is the creation of a single integrated European meta-credit and qualifications framework a possibility or a dream? Would it be of any benefit and if so to whom? STEPHEN ADAM stephenadam@orange.fr

2. FOCUS: • Multiple challenges currently facing European higher education reform • Some issues and questions • Boundaries and tools – overlap and potential domain confusions • Overarching Framework for Qualifications of the European Higher Education Area (FQ-EHEA) • European Qualifications Framework for Lifelong Learning (EQF) • European Credit Transfer and Accumulation System (ECTS) • The European Credit System for Vocational Education and Training (ECVET) • Summary of problems • Is there any hope for some sensible rationalisation? Possible steps towards a solution

3. STPEHEN ADAM: stephenadam@orange.fr • Multiple challenges! • CONTEXT: • Growth in demand • Constrained funding • Demographic change • Increased competition • Globalisation RANKINGS ? Student- centred learning Employability Learning outcomes –delivery assessment

4. 2. Some issues and questions: 1. There is a necessity to ‘facilitate the compatibility and comparability between credit systems used in VET and ECTS, which is used in the higher education sector, and thus [to] contribute to greater permeability between levels of education and training.’ Recommendation on ECVET 2. ‘We are satisfied that national qualifications frameworks compatible with the overarching Framework for Qualifications of the EHEA will also be compatible with the proposal from the European Commission on a European Qualifications Framework for Lifelong Learning.’ London Communiqué 2007 See BeTWIN project

5. 2. Some issues and questions: Can ECVET be made compatible with ECTS? What is the difference between VET and HE (nationally and internationally)? What is the evidence to support the assertion by Bologna ministers that new NQF compatible with the FQ-EHEA are also going to be compatible with the EQF? Are European tools supporting recognition and mobility clear, unambiguous and fit for purpose? Are we suffering from framework proliferation, overlap and confusions that could be dysfunctional?

6. 3. Boundaries and tools - overlap and domain confusions INTERNATIONAL FRAMEWORKS OF FRAMEWORKS (general + broad – for framework creators) DIFFERENT PURPOSES LOCAL (Complex and detailed specific regulations - for institutional staff)

7. 4. Overarching Framework for Qualifications of the European Higher Education Area (FQ-EHEA) • FQ-EHEA adopted by Bergen Communiqué 2005 + new deadline for new style NQF - all to be implemented and prepared for self-certification by 2012 • Three cycles with attached ECTS credit ranges for first and second cycles (Typically 180-240, 90-120) • Purposes: • Sets the parameters within which the countries of the EHEA will develop their national qualifications frameworks; • Describes the “outer limits” within which national frameworks should be situated; • Allows for diversity within those limits; • Ensures compatibility between national frameworks; • Presents a “common face” for higher education in Europe, which is important in a global context; • Facilitates movement between systems; • Is the face of “Bologna qualifications” to the rest of the world; • Provides the broad structure within which “new style” national qualifications frameworks will be developed NB: Many countries are finding the creation of NQF very difficult (cosmetic changes) + just adopt the generic Dublin descriptors

8. 5. European Qualifications Framework for Lifelong Learning (EQF) • EQF established in 2008 by the EU Council and Parliament. All new qualifications issued from 2012 to carry a reference to an appropriate EQF level. By 2010 National Qualification Systems should be referenced (self-certificated) to the EQF. • The EQF applies to all types of education, training and qualifications, from school education to academic, professional and vocational. • Purposes: • Acts as a translation device to make national qualifications more readable across Europe, promoting workers' and learners' mobility between countries and facilitating their lifelong learning; • The EQF aims to relate different countries' national qualifications systems to a common European reference framework; • Individuals and employers will be able to use the EQF better to understand and compare the qualifications levels of different countries and different education and training systems; • It encourages countries to relate their national qualifications systems to the EQF; • Acts as a catalyst for reforms: most Member States are now developing their own National Qualifications Frameworks (NQFs) based on learning outcomes; • Encourages lifelong learning by promoting the validation of non-formal and informal learning. NB. Progress is slow and for many countries problematic

9. 6. European Credit Transfer and Accumulation System (ECTS) • In 1988 0riginated mainly as a mobility ‘credit transfer’ tool to aid the recognition of periods of study undertaken at a foreign host institution in the home institution. Since the inception of the Bologna Process it has slowly developed and is now experiencing its final and most difficult transitional phase with its gradual metamorphosis into a student-centred credit accumulation system, based on learning outcomes. • Purposes: • ECTS makes teaching and learning in higher education more transparent across Europe and facilitates the recognition of all studies; • The system allows for the transfer of learning experiences between different institutions, greater student mobility and more flexible routes to gain degrees; • It aids curriculum design and quality assurance; • ECTS is a tool that helps to design, describe, and deliver programmes and award higher education qualifications. • The use of ECTS, in conjunction with outcomes-based qualifications frameworks, makes programmes and qualifications more transparent and facilitates the recognition of qualifications. • ECTS can be applied to all types of programmes, whatever their mode of delivery (school-based, work-based), the learners’ status (full-time, part-time) and to all kinds of learning (formal, non-formal and informal); • It aims to facilitate planning, delivery, evaluation, recognition and validation of qualifications and units of learning as well as student mobility. • ECTS is widely used in formal higher education and can be applied to other lifelong learning activities. NB. The ECTS transition to using learning outcomes is difficult + progress slow + appears to have wide applications

10. ECTS - TECHNICAL DEFINITIONS: 60 ECTS credits are attached to the workload of a full-time year of formal learning (academic year) and the associated learning outcomes. In most cases, learner workload ranges from 1,500 to 1,800 hours for an academic year, whereby one credit corresponds to 25 to 30 hours of work. ECTS credit is a quantified means of expressing the volume of learning based on the workload learners need in order to achieve the expected outcomes of a learning process at a specified level. ECTS credits are based on the workload students need in order to achieve expected learning outcomes. Learning outcomes describe what a learner is expected to know, understand and be able to do after successful completion of a process of learning. They relate to level descriptors in national and European qualifications frameworks.

11. 7. The European Credit System for Vocational Education and Training (ECVET) • ECVET is a new European instrument recommended by the European Parliament and Council 2009. It has been designed as a European credit system compatible with the specificities of vocational education and training. • Purposes: • The system aims to facilitate the validation, recognition and accumulation of work-related skills and knowledge acquired during a stay in another country or in different situations. • It should ensure that these experiences contribute to vocational qualifications. • ECVET aims for better compatibility between the different vocational education and training (VET) systems in place across Europe and their qualifications. • By 2012, it should create a technical framework to describe qualifications in terms of units of learning outcomes, and it includes assessment, transfer, accumulation and recognition procedures. • In ECVET, an individual’s learning outcomes are assessed and validated in order to transfer credits from one qualification system to another, or from one learning "pathway" to another. According to this approach, learners can accumulate the required learning outcomes for a given qualification over time, in different countries or in different situations. • The system also allows the possibility to develop common references for VET qualifications and is fully compatible with the European Credit Transfer and Accumulation System (ECTS) NB. It is too early to assess the value of ECVET but its definitions are potentially confusing

12. ECVET - TECHNICAL DEFINITIONS: According to the technical specifications of ECVET, qualifications are described in terms of units of learning outcomes. The Recommendation on ECVET (2009) defines a unit of learning outcomes as “a component of a qualification, consisting in a coherent set of knowledge, skills and competences that can be assessed and validated”. A credit for learning outcomes on the other hand means “a set of learning outcomes of an individual which have been assessed and which can be accumulated towards a qualification or transferred to other learning programmes or qualifications”. This means that an assessed unit of learning outcomes leads to obtaining a credit of learning outcomes. ECVET points are allocated to a qualification as a whole and to its units. Allocation of ECVET points to a qualification is based on using an agreement according to which 60 points are allocated to the learning outcomes expected to be achieved in a year of formal full time VET. ECVET points are a ‘numerical representation of the overall weight of learning outcomes in a qualification and of the relative weight of units in relation to the qualification’. The credit and ECVET points are thus different entities. While a credit is a set of knowledge, skills and competences the learner has achieved, ECVET points provide information about the weight of units within the qualification.

13. 8. Summary of problems • There are obvious terminological problems • and confusions • Differences in key definitions used • Credit is understood differently • The relationship between the meta- • frameworks is unclear and potentially • baffling • An artificial meta-disjunction/barrier • between VET and HE is being created

14. 9. Is there any hope for some sensible rationalisation? Steps towards a solution It is unrealistic to call for a deep and immediate rationalisation between the FQ-EHEA/ECTS and EQF/ECVET visions of reality but this should happen even if the politics of the situation probably make this impossible at the moment. However, there are some obvious recommendations to make to those responsible for these initiatives: • Seek the merging of ECTS and ECVET in order to establish for Europe one meta-credit system, with a single definition and understanding of a credit and credit points. • Suggest the European Commission demonstrates that the stated compatibility between ECTS and ECVET is explained in detail and tested in practice (Hopefully the Be-TWIN methodology succeeds). The relationship between the European meta-credit systems and national credit arrangements needs clarification. • Call for a detailed explanation of the practical relationship between FQ-EHEA and EQF and their role visàvis national qualifications frameworks and credit systems. Again it is stated that FQ-EHEA and EQF are compatible but this needs to be made explicit. • Develop a set of common definitions between FQ-EHEA, EQF, ECTS and ECVET and some mechanism to merge them. Many technical complications arise because these instruments do not share common definitions of key concepts.

15. References: BE-TWIN Project ‘ECVET-ECTS’ http://www.ecvet-projects.eu/Documents/Be-TWIN_Methodological_Guide_2010.pdf Bologna Process http://www.ond.vlaanderen.be/hogeronderwijs/bologna/ CEDEFOP ‘Linking credit systems and QF’ http://www.cedefop.europa.eu/EN/publications/15974.aspx ECVET http://ec.europa.eu/education/lifelong-learning-policy/doc50_en.htm ECVET EC Newsletter http://www.ecvet-projects.eu/News/NewsItem.aspx?id=19 ECTS Users’ Guide (2009) http://ec.europa.eu/education/lifelong-learning-policy/doc/ects/guide_en.pdf European Higher Education Area (EHEA) http://www.ehea.info/ European Universities Association (EUA) http://www.eua.be/Home.aspx European Qualifications Framework (EQF) http://ec.europa.eu/education/lifelong-learning-policy/doc44_en.htm Qualification frameworks (FQ-EHEA) http://www.ond.vlaanderen.be/hogeronderwijs/bologna/qf/qf.asp