Micro-credentials in Higher Education in Ireland - Barbara Kelly, Director of Qualifications Quality and Qualifications Ireland (QQI) - European ...

Micro-credentials in Higher Education
             in Ireland

  Barbara Kelly, Director of Qualifications
  Quality and Qualifications Ireland (QQI)

Context

•   Department of Education & Department of Further & Higher
    Education, Research, Innovation and Science

•   National Framework of Qualifications (NFQ)

•   National Skills Strategy 2025

•   Quality and Qualifications agency (QQI)

QQI – What we do?
Quality Assurance                            Qualifications
• Develop quality assurance guidelines        • Set standards for education and
• Approve providers’ quality assurance       training
procedures                                   • Award qualifications and issue
• Validate programmes                        certificates

• Monitor and review providers (includes     • Enable access, transfer and progression
annual dialogues and statutory reviews)      • Recognise qualifications

The National Framework of                    International Education
Qualifications                               • Establish a code of practice for
• Maintain the National Framework of         providers offering courses to
Qualifications (NFQ) as a system of          international learners
relating different qualification levels to    • Authorise the use of the International
one another                                  Education Mark (IEM), a quality mark for
• Promote and develop the NFQ                international education.
• Support the implementation of the NFQ

National Framework of Qualifications (NFQ)

• The Irish NFQ is a 10-Level Framework for general,
  further and higher education

• Established in 2003

• Higher education covers Levels 6-10 of the NFQ

Mapping of Irish NFQ to QF-EHEA and EQF

National Framework of Qualifications (NFQ)

Principal classes of awards in the NFQ

•   MAJOR awards (including Bachelor, Master, Doctorate)
•   MINOR awards (for partial completion of the outcomes for a
    Major Award)
•   SPECIAL PURPOSE awards (for relatively narrow or purpose-
    specific achievement)
•   SUPPLEMENTAL awards (learning that is additional to a Major
    Award)

Irish Register of Qualifications (IRQ)
                          www.IRQ.ie

The IRQ is a searchable database of all qualifications and
awards in the NFQ

•   Currently contains 10,753 programmes/courses

•   6,092 higher education programmes

•   1,326 higher education programmes with

QQI Quality Assurance Principles

       The primary responsibility for QA lies with the provider.
       This requires planning, resources and commitment.

       Quality systems are context dependent.

       Ownership, understanding of, and commitment to, a quality system by
       management and staff are crucial – quality culture.

       The goal of QA is continuous improvement.

       A quality system includes externality.

       QA is transparent and supports public confidence.

Statutory Quality Assurance Guidelines

       • Apply to all providers       • Apprenticeship
       • Not prescriptive or a ‘how   • Blended learning
         to’ manual.
       • Guidelines e.g. on
         governance; policies and
         procedures; T&L;
         assessment; monitoring,
         self-evaluation & review.

External QA Framework

Provider Level

     Approval of                   Monitoring                     External Review
     Procedures                    • Annual                       • Every 5-7 years
     • Consistent with Quality     • Updating QQI on changes to   • In-depth, independent
       Assurance Guidelines          procedures and quality         evaluation of
     • Once-off                      activity                       implementation and
                                                                    effectiveness of QA
                                                                    procedures

Programme Level

                     Programme
                                              Certification
                      Validation

QQI initiative in micro-credentials 2020

•   QQI has been involved in approving micro-
    credential programmes and courses for several years, through
    Minor and Special Purpose Awards particularly in Further
    Education and Training

•   In late 2020, QQI put in place streamlined processes to validate
    (accredit) very small Higher Education and Training programmes

•   A condition was that a micro-credential had to consist of a
    module of a previously validated programme

QQI initiative in micro-credentials 2020

In December 2020, QQI approved some new micro-credential
courses across a wide range of disciplines in a number of private HE
colleges:

•   Quality & Regulatory Practice in the Pharmaceutical Industry (Level 9 –
    5 ECTS)
•   Digital Communications & Customer Engagement (Level 7 – 10 ECTS)
•   Software Development Fundamentals (Level 8 – 10 ECTS)
•   Special Education (Level 7 – 5 ECTS)
•   Creative Problem Solving and Action Learning (Level 6 – 10 ECTS)
•   Project Management (Level 8 – 5 ECTS)

Further developments in QQI micro-credentials
                     – 8 April 2021

There had been continued demand from the provider sector that
the model for micro-credentials be extended further to include:

•   new programmes i.e. ones with no connection to a previously
    validated programme

•   modification of modules which had been taken from a
    previously validated programme(s)

QQI definition of micro-credential – 8 April 2021

For the purpose of validation by QQI, a micro-credential is a
programme with the following attributes:

•   volume of between 5 and 30 ECTS, leading to a special purpose
    award at NFQ Levels 6 to 9
•   designed to meet a current market need for which there is
    demonstrable learner demand and value
•   targeted to a clearly expressed learner profile and programme
    delivery and assessment methods appropriate to that learner
    profile
•   delivered using a blend of face to face and online media or
    solely online

Government of Ireland initiative in micro-credentials
                           2020

•   The representative body for the self-awarding Irish universities, the
    Irish Universities Association (IUA), was awarded €12.3 million from
    Pillar 3 of the Human Capital Initiative (HCI) to establish a Multi-
    Campus Micro-Credentials (MC2) system across the seven universities
    over the next five years

•   Through the MC2 project, the IUA universities will establish a coherent
    national framework for ECTS-bearing micro-credentials, a system of
    certified qualifications in short courses delivered in flexible formats

•   This project will increase Irish university capacity to extract and adapt
    high-demand modules from existing programmes, and develop tailored
    courses, to suit the needs of enterprise and learners

Thank you for your attention

       Barbara Kelly
       bkelly@qqi.ie