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This is the Submitted Version of an article published by Taylor & Francis in Quality in Higher Education on 12th November 2009, available online: http://wwww.tandfonline.com/10.1080/13538320903343099. ; Arguments for National Qualification Frameworks (NQF) are compelling. Indeed, such frameworks are now an international phenomenon. Yet, few studies take a critical perspective and challenge the broad assumptions underpinning NQF. Arguments presented in this paper attempt to open a debate within the higher education community that draws attention to conflicts and tensions regarding the diffusion and use of NQF. The emphasis of the debate is on the use of the Scottish Credit and Qualification Framework (SCQF) within higher education. The SCQF is used in this paper as an exemplar to explore and highlight these conflicts and tensions. The critique is based on a historical and managerialist view that forms the basis of a number of research propositions regarding the future of NQF. Specifically, four distinct yet interrelated research perspectives requiring future attention are proposed: political; innovation–diffusion; normative; and consistency. Such perspectives are argued to provide a more robust and reliable basis for developing NQF. The paper thus contextualises the SCQF within the recent 'global tsunami' of NQF and uses the SCQF as an exemplar to open up a wider debate about NQF.

The global spread of the National Qualification Framework (NQF) for education provides a structure of well-defined, nationally accredited qualification while focussing on learning outcomes. In India, the NQF is emerging as a mechanism to regain confidence in the system of education by making it competitive and compatible with market demands. However, the Indian education system is so diverse that it creates problems of comparability and difficulties in establishing equivalence. Moreover, there is more than one Qualification Framework (QF) in the higher education domain alone. This article seeks to examine how policy should metamorphose by stitching the fragmented fabric of Indian higher education system and the QFs in such a comprehensive manner that it responds effectively to reform it in the present age of globalisation. It argues that a dynamic synergy and remapping is required between the Indian QFs and the NQF policies which should be based on evidence-based research and a detailed understanding of the education system recognising its unique complexities.

Establishing the personal scope of labour legislation is a delicate task,
primarily because of the need to make labour law protection available to all
people, who actually perform dependent work. Labour law protection is
therefore traditionally limited to people working under the power of another,
although, depending on the nature of their work, the degree of their
subordination to the employer?s (managerial, normative and disciplinary)
prerogatives may vary. This is the main reason why legal subordination was
developed as a reliable criterion for the qualification of employees.
However, certain legal systems have recently started defining this term based
on other characteristics of subordinated work, which leads to dilution of the
traditional concept of subordination. Besides, the dilution of this concept
is also caused by the introduction of legal fiction regarding employee status
in favour of certain categories of workers. Although these changes have been
implemented in court practices of certain countries, there is no reason to
conclude that the subordination concept has been diluted beyond recognition.
In this regards, one should be aware of the need to protect the persons who
are engaged in a disguised employment relationship, which is why the
principle of primacy of fact should be applied here. On the other hand, the
emergence of new forms of work significantly dulls the edge that delineates
the dependent from independent work, especially if we take into account the
self-employed persons whose means of subsistence come predominantly from one
employer, making them economically dependent and thereby creating the need
for their special protection.

National (and European) qualifications frameworks which map qualifications in a similar way according to the specification of learning outcomes and then assign them a unique position within a hierarchical system of levels have proved very attractive to policy makers. They offer the prospect of improving transparency between qualifications and aiding mobility, but as with all policies the acid test is how the policy is implemented in practice. As many countries now consider how to implement a National Qualifications Framework (NQF), it is perhaps instructive to look at the reasons for the policy failure of an NQF based exclusively on learning outcomes in England. The major lesson to be learned is that a focus on competence, mapping qualifications, levels and outcomes can become a distraction from the much harder goal of improving the quality of teaching and learning. Shifting attention to a developmental approach to the development of expertise may be more effective by highlighting the importance of processes of learning and the need to support the development of expansive learning environments in education, training and employment. Recognising that the development of an NQF has an important but limited part to play in this process, and that a "rough guide" to equivalence will often be sufficient in mapping potential progression pathways, may be a useful starting point for this shift. (DIPF/Orig.) ; Nationale (und Europäische) Qualifikationsrahmen, welche Qualifikationen auf ähnliche Art und Weise abbilden, indem sie Lernergebnisse festlegen und ihnen dann eine eindeutige Position innerhalb eines hierarchischen Stufensystems zuschreiben, haben sich als sehr attraktiv für politische EntscheidungsträgerInnen herausgestellt. Sie bieten Aussicht auf eine Verbesserung der Transparenz zwischen Qualifikationen und der Förderung von Mobilität. Wie bei allen Umsetzungen politischer Vorgaben besteht die Feuerprobe jedoch darin, inwieweit diese Qualifikationsrahmen in der Praxis umgesetzt werden. Da momentan viele Länder die Umsetzung eines Nationalen Qualifikationsrahmens (NQR) in Betracht ziehen, ist es vielleicht aufschlussreich, sich anhand des Beispiels England die Gründe für das Versagen eines ausschließlich auf Lernergebnisse basierenden NQR vor Augen zu führen. Die Hauptlektion, die man daraus lernen kann, ist, dass Schwerpunktsetzungen auf Kompetenz und das Sichtbarmachen von Qualifikationen, Levels und Ergebnissen vom viel schwieriger zu erreichenden Ziel einer Verbesserung der Lehr- und Lernqualität ablenken können. Die Verlagerung des Augenmerks auf einen entwicklungsorientierten Ansatz, also der Entwicklung von ExpertInnenwissen, dürfte noch effektiver sein durch ein Hervorheben der Bedeutung von Lernprozessen und des Bedürfnisses, die Entwicklung einer expansiven Lernumgebung in Bildung, Ausbildung und Erwerbstätigkeit zu unterstützen. Anzuerkennen, dass die Entwicklung eines NQR in diesem Prozess eine eingeschränkte Rolle spielt, und dass eine "grobe Orientierung" hin zur Gleichwertigkeit oft ausreichend sein wird bei der Aufzeichnung potentieller Fortschrittsverläufe, mag ein brauchbarer Ansatzpunkt für diesen Verlagerungstrend sein. (DIPF/Orig.)

Selling Out Education argues that basing education policy on qualifications and learning outcomes-dramatized by the phenomenal expansion of qualifications frameworks-is misguided. Qualifications frameworks are intended to make education more responsive to the needs of economies and societies by improving how qualifications and credentials are used in labour markets. But using learning outcomes as the starting point of education programmes neglects the core purpose of education: giving people access to bodies of knowledge they would not otherwise have. Furthermore, instead of creating demand for skilled workers through industrial and economic policy, qualifications frameworks are premised on the flawed idea that a supply of skilled workers leads to industrial and economic development. And skilled workers are to be supplied not by encouraging governments to focus attention on creating, improving, and supporting education institutions, but by suggesting that governments take a quality-assurance role. As a result, in poor countries where provision is weak to start with, qualifications have been created and institutions established to monitor providers without increasing or improving education provision. The weaknesses of many current policy approaches make clear, Allais argues, that education is inherently a collective good, and that the acquisition of bodies of knowledge provide the basis for its integrity and intelligibility

This publication was prepared as part of the NQF-in Project Developing Organisational and Financial Models for Including Non-Formal Sector Qualifications in National Qualifications Frameworks financed by the European Union within the framework of the Erasmus+ Programme. It consists of two volumes: Volume I – Country Reports, Volume II – Annexes to the Country Reports, both published in electronic format. ; The aim of the NQF-in Project is to provide evidence-based support to national governments, EU agencies and key stakeholders in developing policies for including qualifications in national qualifications frameworks, with a particular focus on qualifications awarded outside the formal education system (non-formal sector qualifications). This aim is achieved by conducting two sets of activities in the project: (1) providing systematised knowledge about the organisational and financial solutions applied in seven EU countries for including non-formal sector qualifications in their NQF-based systems, and (2) developing organisational and financial models for the inclusion of non-formal sector qualifications in NQF-based systems. ; European Union. Erasmus+ Programme