Credits, Qualifications and the Fluttering Standard

The primary function of credit is to help assess the equivalence of learning and to facilitate student transfer within and between institutions. Recently, attention has focused on the role credit may have in defining the academic standards of qualifications. Some recently proposed qualifications frameworks are one-dimensional in that they have levels as the only measurable parameter. Such 'frameworks' are not true frameworks because there is no basis for differentiating the qualifications at each level. Other frameworks are two-dimensional, using credits and levels as the two parameters. Where the award of credit for a module reflects the satisfactory completion of all the designated learning outcomes at a specified level, there is a clear basis for relating credit to academic standards. In this situation, plotting the credit requirements for qualifications onto a framework that comprises levels and credits makes an important contribution towards understanding the relative standards of the qualifications.