What progress towards adopting the NICATS scheme has been made by other FE/HE institutions and in what subject area?
At present, following the work of the Inter Consortium Credit Agreement (InCCA) Project (which published its final report in 1998) many UK universities are adopting common principles in relation to the assignment of credit to learning programmes. The UK wide adoption of the NICATS summary generic level descriptors was one of the recommendations in the InCCA report (Sept. 1998). The Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education have agreed that the major UK credit consortia/development groups (including NICATS) should work together to prepare guidance on how credit arrangements might map onto the new framework for higher education qualifications in England, Wales and Northern Ireland (January 2001). This guidance will be available later in 2001. In addition, progress towards adopting a single credit framework across FE and HE, in Northern Ireland, is being made through two major projects – the UK Credit Equivalence Project and the FE Sector/NICATS Access Curriculum Development Project.
