Levels and level descriptors
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1. Introduction
Ensuring progression is an important element of any curriculum design process; we do this by increasing the demand, complexity and uncertainty as students move through the course. Typically an undergraduate programme in the UK comprises three years of study (exempting medicine and dentistry, and those that include a work or study placement either at home or abroad). Essential aids to thinking through progression are the level statements in the frameworks for higher education qualifications:
- The framework for England, Wales and Northern Ireland, published by the Quality Assurance Agency (QAA), is called the Framework for Higher Education Qualifications (FHEQ), and this sits alongside the National Qualifications Framework (NQF).
- The framework for Scotland is an integral part of the wider Scottish Credit and Qualifications Framework (SCQF).
- Over the next few years these frameworks will be linked to a European standard that is currently being discussed: the initiative is called the Bologna Process; the aim is to establish a European Higher Education Area by 2010.
It is, of course, essential to relate to the framework in force where you will be located, but as an example we will look at the NQF/FHEQ. The nine stages run from entry level, through GCSE (levels 1 & 2), A-levels (level 3), undergraduate (levels 4 to 6) and finally postgraduate (levels 7 & 8). For HE:
| 4 | Certificate: | C level: |
Certificates of Higher Education. |
| 5 | Intermediate: | I level: |
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| 6 | Honours: | H level: |
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| 7 | Master's: | M level: |
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| 8 | Doctoral: | D level: | Doctorates. |
2. Hints, tips and suggestions
Levels and years
Notice the distinction that is being made between the terms levels and years. The level describes the demand of the course, whilst the year refers to the chronological order that students attend the course. It is not unknown for a mixed group of year 2 and year 3 students to attend the same level 2 or level 3 course. This may be a practical solution to a resource issue - the course can only be offered every other academic year due to staffing shortages or small numbers of students wishing to attend - rather than for a pedagogic reason. This could raise a number of pedagogic issues but we will leave those for the moment.
Using the frameworks
The FHEQ is more than a ladder of success because, as you can see from the table above, the levels relate to a number of qualifications, and going deeper into the information provides descriptors of what students should, typically, be able to do at particular levels. In many ways the comparison between levels is more useful than reading the individual levels - remember that the higher level assumes achievement of the lower. If we consider two adjacent levels, it is expected that, typically, students will be able to:
Certificate (C) level Evaluate the appropriateness of different approaches to solving problems related to their area(s) of study and/or work. | Intermediate (I) level Use a range of established techniques to initiate and undertake critical analysis of information, and to propose solutions to problems arising from that analysis. |
Communicate the results of their study/work accurately and reliably, and with structured and coherent arguments. | Effectively communicate information, arguments, and analysis, in a variety of forms, to specialist and non-specialist audiences, and deploy key techniques of the discipline effectively. |
Undertake further training and develop new skills within a structured and managed environment. | Undertake further training, develop existing skills, and acquire new competences that will enable them to assume significant responsibility within organisations. |
Now we can begin to see the difference in expectations at the various stages and the learning outcomes set for your students should allow them, as a minimum, to achieve these different levels. As many teachers find it difficult to decide at what level to pitch their courses, these descriptors are useful starting points - but should be discussed with experienced colleagues to see how they have been interpreted locally.
Local versions
You may find that particular institutions have produced local versions of the descriptors that better fit the context of the HEI. Whatever the case, it will be worth spending the hour or so that it takes to access and read the level C, I , H and M statements on the QAA website and thinking through their significance to your work with students.
3. Further information
The Quality Assurance Agency (QAA) website is a very useful source of information about the quality assurance processes in the UK.
To see the qualification frameworks, go to the Academic Infrastructure section of the QAA site and follow the links to the information that best suits your future location.
To conclude this section, consider the following descriptor of an honours degree in the UK. These statements give us a clear flavour of what a typical graduate should be able to - but not to what level of sophistication, which is where the classification system fits in (more about classification in other briefing papers).
Honours degrees are awarded to students who have demonstrated: | |||
| i | A systematic understanding of key aspects of their field of study, including acquisition of coherent and detailed knowledge, at least some of which is at or informed by, the forefront of defined aspects of a discipline. | |
| ii | An ability to deploy accurately established techniques of analysis and enquiry within a discipline. | |
| iii | Conceptual understanding that enables the student: | |
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| a | To devise and sustain arguments, and/or to solve problems, using ideas and techniques, some of which are at the forefront of a discipline. |
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| b | To describe and comment upon particular aspects of current research, or equivalent advanced scholarship, in the discipline. |
| iv | An appreciation of the uncertainty, ambiguity and limits of knowledge. | |
| v | The ability to manage their own learning, and to make use of scholarly reviews and primary sources (e.g. refereed research articles and/or original materials appropriate to the discipline). | |
Typically, holders of the qualification will be able to: | |||
| a | Apply the methods and techniques that they have learned to review, consolidate, extend and apply their knowledge and understanding, and to initiate and carry out projects. | |
| b | Critically evaluate arguments, assumptions, abstract concepts and data (that may be incomplete), to make judgements, and to frame appropriate questions to achieve a solution - or identify a range of solutions - to a problem. | |
| c | Communicate information, ideas, problems, and solutions to both specialist and non-specialist audiences. | |
And will have: | |||
| d | Qualities and transferable skills necessary for employment requiring:
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