National qualifications frameworks (NQFs) are designed to facilitate recognition, mobility and employability through transparency, comparability and transferability, not only between different countries but also between different sectors within a national higher education system. To fulfil this purpose, NQFs must be elaborated with a strong emphasis on learning outcomes, fully integrated into the Quality Assurance systems, and allowing a variety of learning paths to a given qualification, including informal and non-formal learning; they must be linked to recognition of prior learning; and they must be certified against widely-recognized, overarching QFs for all types and levels of higher education.
NQFs which meet these requirements will contribute to making higher education programs more relevant to the needs of society, and at the same time will contribute to the coherence and continuity of the individual learner’s development. Our vision for 2020 is an EHEA where NQFs are implemented in all Bologna countries, higher education institutions , and where a single, universal European Qualifications Framework has been developed, certified against the Overarching Qualifications Framework for the EHEA and aligned to the European Qualifications Framework for Lifelong Learning.
EURASHE commits itself to cooperate with international bodies, national authorities, higher education institutions and external stakeholders in defining the learning outcomes that will constitute a universal EQF.
We will initiate discussions and projects to explore the possibilities for sector- and/or profession-specific approaches in this context. And we will assist our members to ensure that the principles of QFs are understood, reflected in the institutional policy and fully implemented into curricula.
Student-centred learning and the teaching mission of higher education institutions are, both as concepts and as realities, closely intertwined with all the previous themes, i.e. the social dimension, the qualifications frameworks, employability and lifelong learning. Since the beginning of the Bologna process the role of students, teachers and their learning environment has already undergone significant change in accordance with the relatively new concept of student-centred learning.
The learning society in a globalised world requires a number of competencies that are universally accepted, such as interpersonal and intercultural competencies, multilingualism, international awareness, ICT-skills, and – perhaps most important – the ability to learn how to learn in different formal and informal settings, including autonomous learning processes with adequate support and guidance structures.
The vision for 2020 is an EHEA where the transition to student-centred learning has been completed in all Bologna countries and where HEIs have redefined and implemented curricula in line with their mission and profile, but entirely based on students’ learning outcomes. This requires not only the dedication of all institutional staff and management, but also the full involvement of students in program design, institutional governance and quality assurance. We advise governments to establish the legal frameworks
for this purpose.
EURASHE commits itself to encouraging and assisting all its members to develop an overall approach to teaching, learning and assessment, where the student-centred approach is the rule, rather than the exception, and where the will to seek feedback from students and to learn from it, is a prevailing force.
These topics are studied by the Working Group on NQF & Student-Centred Learning (WG3), led by Zdenka Steblovnik Zupan (VC – Wood Technology School Maribor) and Bryan Maguire (HETAC).
The objectives of this WG are:
a. Enhance understanding of National and European Qualification Frameworks and promote implementation of their principles with attention to student centred learning):
b. Promotion of EQF and its implementation in curricula
c. Promotion of closer connection of VET and HE
Find out the composition of the Working Group 3.
