The Qualification FrameworksPros et Contras

Sigmund GrønmoUniversity of Bergen

SIU SeminarGardermoen June 17, 2011

InternationalisationInternational demands

Need for clear and tranparent information on the educational systems

and

a need to facilitate access and progression between compulsory education, vocational education and training, and higher education

The priority areas of the Bologna process(The Ministerial meeting in Prague in 2001)

9. Promotion of the attractiveness of the European Higher Education Area

The readability and comparability of European higher education degrees worldwide should be enhanced by means of the common framework of qualifications… (factsheet, 2006)

A strong policy mechanism! (OECD)

Qualification Frameworks in the context of the Bologna processDefinitions

Systematic description of educational levels using learning outcomes as level descriptors

A level (a cycle)

What a student should know and be able to demonstrate at the end of a learning period - id.est at the time when a study programme is successfully completed (exit level)

Target groups:

Teachers

Students

Employers

Authorities

The society at home and abroad

Student-centred learning and the teaching mission of higher education. Leuven/Louvain-la-Neuve Communiqué, April 2009

We reassert the importance of the teaching mission of higher education institutions and the necessity for ongoing curricular reform geared toward the development of learning outcomes.

Student - centred learning requires empowering individual learners, new approaches to teaching and learning, effective support and guidance structures and a curriculum focused more clearly on the learner in all three cycles. Curriculum reform will thus be an ongoing process leading to high quality, flexible and more individually tailored education paths. Academics, in close cooperation with student and employer representatives, will continue to develop learning outcomes and international reference points for a growing number of subject areas.

We ask the higher education institutions to pay attention to improving the teaching quality of their study programmes at all levels. This should be a priority in the future implementation of the European Standards and Guidelines for quality assurance.

Teachers´s responsibilities

The implemenation of a qualification framework requires the teachers to use, at both programme and module level,

a new pedagogical approach to curriculum design with the purpose to enhance clarity and transparency of the studies.

Not only the content of a degree or a study shall be described but also the learning outcomes. The learning outcomes should be supported by suitable teaching methods and assessment forms

Students

Information source:what a student should know and be able to demonstrate at the time when the degree will be awardedwhat the student will be assessed on

Awareness:of expected learning outcomesof achieved competencesof employability

Employers and authorities

Information on what can be expected from higher education candidates

For quality assurance purposes

For recognition purposes

And as an overarching goal

The learning outcome-based approach should enhance the international mobility and employability

The benefits. A qualification framework should

• give consistent information on the system it is meant to describe (international framework, national framework, sectoral framework, institutional framework) to the society at large

• make the students aware of what they should be able to demonstrate at the end of a learning period

• focus on the universities´ teaching mission

• improve curriculum design: a common pedagogical approach to learning outcome-based education. Teaching and assement should be in line with the learning outcomes

• enhance flexibility and recognition: It may contribute in a positive way to the validation of non-formal and in-formal learning

• enhance employability

The goal of the new approach is to enhance higher education

But it might sometimes be experienced as complicated and overwhelming teachers?

Framework concepts may be used and interpreted in different ways

The ministerial meeting in Bergen in 2005

Three qualification frameworks!

1. The overarching framework for qualifications

“We adopt the overarching framework for qualifications in the European Higher Education Area,…”

Extract from the ministerial communiqué from the Bergen meeting

2. National Qualifications Frameworks

“We commit ourselves to elaborating national frameworks for qualifications compatible with the overarching framework for qualifications in the EHEA…”

Extract from the ministerial communiqué from the Bergen meeting

3. The European Qualifications Framework for Lifelong learning (EU)

”We underline the importance of ensuring complementarity between the overarching framework for the EHEA and the proposal of a broader framework for qualifications for lifelong learning...”

Extract from the ministerial communiqué from the Bergen meeting

Qualifications Framework for Higher Education

European Higher Education Area(adopted in Bergen 2005)

The European Qualifications Framework for Lifelong Learning

(adopted in Brussels 2008)A common reference point

The National Qualifications Framework

Level references

National Qualifications Framework“A graduate with a completed qualification should have the following learning outcomes defined in terms of

knowledge, skills and generic competence:…”

National quality assurance requirements by national accreditation agencies

Learning outcomes - the programme level

The graduate is able to demonstrate:…

Learning outcomes at different levels

Learning outcomes at course level

The student is able to demonstrate…

Learning outcomes at course level

The student is able to demonstrate…

Learning outcomes at course level

The student is able to demonstrate…

QuestionsNational qualifications frameworks

What is their status:

Are they exclusively a source of information

or

should they be used normative

or

do they describe the required standards?

QuestionsNational Qualifications Frameworks

A qualification framework – does it describe well enough the different levels or is it a simplification of a complex educational picture?

QuestionsThe concept of learning outcomes

1) The term learning outcomesHow should it be understood?

Used both as goals/objectives for intended/expected learning outcomes/results of a learning periodandas achieved results.

In NorwayPhrasing/WordingDeveloped from ”intended learning outcomes” to statements describing what a holder of a qualification is able to do or demonstrate.

The concept of learning outcomes

2) Learning outcomes divided into competence fields:

f.ex. knowledge, skills, generic competence

It might be problematic to separate or categorise the competence fields because learning is a complex process with many interwoven and connected elements.

The learning outcomes concept

3) Do the learning outcomes give enough information about the qualifications?

• as information for potential students in a prosepectus• as information for employers in diplomas and Diploma Supplement • as a source for the quality assurance of the study programmes • as recognition element for admission or recognition officers

The learning outcome concept

4) Learning outcomes and the different lenghts of studies

The lenght of the study programme is different but the level descriptions are the same: Is this a problem?

A degree of 180 ECTS compared with a degree of 240 ECTS. Are the real outcomes the same?

The difference is approximately 1600 study related hours.

The key elements for successful use of qualification frameworks

What should be further worked on:

• common understanding and practice of the QFs

• common understanding of the terminology used in the QFs

• common understanding of which QF is the common platform for joint degrees

• discussion and further development in the use of learning outcomes in assessment and quality assurance procedures. And to ensure alignment between teaching, assessment, and intentions as phrased

• discussion of the need for different wording concerning information on learning outcomes in brochures, on the web pages, curricula and in Diplomas and Diploma Supplements

• discussion of competence descriptions in terms of learning outcomes and validation of non-formal and informal learning

As a professor

I would like to emphasize that the students´ learning has always been at the core of the universities´ activities, and that it can be approached in different ways.

But it is crucial that the universities continuously reflect on how to enhance the students´ learning.

Research basis as the main quality

For a research university the most important quality of the education is that it is research based

The teachers are active in research

Their time is divided equally between research and teaching

Qualification frameworks should reflect this, thus being an additional basis for quality of the education

Even if .....

we have experienced the implementation of the qualification framework, the new approach to curriculum design and the terminology sometimes as a mess...

....it is, however, now doubt that

the qualification framework concept - according to a fresh report from our university - has deepend the thinking and awareness of our programmes of study

and

that the implementation of the outcome-based approach to teaching and learning has improved curriculum design

Besides, ”house cleaning” is often experienced as a necessary evil – but then again all´s well that ends well!

Thank you for your attention!