Is NICATS a uniform system accepted by all British and European universities or is it just a Northern Ireland thing?
At present NICATS is a credit system developed for Northern Ireland by a consortium of providers in further and higher education. Its primary purpose is to establish a workable system for recognising and comparing learning achievement within Northern Ireland. The system used is, however, identical to that proposed by the various consortia of higher education institutions operating throughout the UK. In this way it is fully readable and transferable within the UK system. In Europe, recognition of credit gained in education is much less developed. NICATS credits may well be accepted in those universities which have developed exchange links within the UK, but the credit exchange system is not yet sufficiently developed across Europe for there to be any guarantee of recognition. The recent Bologna Declaration (1999) of European States commits most European countries to working towards similar design principles and mutual recognition for higher level awards. The UK CATS framework may well p
