Notice & Tender Documents
CfT: RFT Updating QQI Assessment Infrastructure 2026
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| N/A | Updating QQI Assessment Infrastructure 2026 | RFT Updating QQI Assessment Infrastructure 2026 15.7.26.docx | QQI is the Qualifications and Quality Assurance Authority of Ireland with responsibility for (among other things) - the external quality assurance of providers of further education (FET) and training or higher education (HE) (providers) in Ireland including designated, delegated and listed awarding bodies. - the external quality assurance of designated and listed awarding bodies that are not providers. - the provision of statutory guidelines on the quality assurance of education, training, research and related services. - determining national policies and criteria for access, transfer and progression in relation to learners (ATP), and monitoring the implementation of procedures for ATP by providers. - promoting, maintaining, further developing and implementing the National Framework of Qualifications (NFQ), which is a system of levels and types for awards of qualifications based on standards of knowledge, skill or competence . - deciding which awards are included in the NFQ. - facilitating the recognition of qualifications inside and outside the state. Those functions operate at system level or at the level of organisations providing programmes of education and training (providers). QQI is also an awarding body. It established standards for its awards, and awards qualifications to persons who have completed programmes of education and training that it has validated (validation is approval of a programme prior to its delivery) that are offered by providers of programmes without the authority to award NFQ qualifications. It can also delegate its authority to providers meeting certain criteria. As a regulator operating at the system level, and with responsibility for the NFQ and external quality assurance, QQI has an interest in the quality of assessment which primarily has to do with the validity of standards-based assessment including its interpretations and uses . While validity is the primary concern and much is involved with it (e.g. reliability, fairness, consistency, inclusivity), there are other concerns too e.g. assessment and its related activities must also be practicable by educational institutions and learners with the necessary capacity and capability and by any other competent parties involved e.g. workplace partners in the context of work-integrated learning. QQI is also concerned with how the relevant standards are themselves quality assured and aligned with the NFQ. As an awarding body QQI needs to ensure that providers of programmes it validates are furnished with clear policies and guidance to enable them to establish procedures that are fair and consistent for the assessment of enrolled learners to ensure the standards of knowledge, skill or competence determined by QQI are acquired, and where appropriate, demonstrated, by enrolled learners. QQI’s assessment infrastructure has been assembled over many years and shaped by diverse influences. HE and FET institutions’ assessment procedures have evolved over generations or longer and have had to adapt to massification of higher education, modularisation, standards based education and training, technological and pedagogical innovation and evolving challenges to the validity of standards-based assessment including its interpretations and uses. QQI promotes standards-based assessment of candidates for qualifications that are included in the National Framework of Qualifications (NFQ). Here ‘standard’ normally means the knowledge, skill or competence that a candidate must achieve before being entitled to be awarded a given qualification. In the context of standards-based assessment, standards may address any learning outcomes e.g. attitudes, motives, autonomy, responsibility and other attributes. Some of these may be subsumed within competence statements but we would be interested in views as to the adequacy of the foregoing triad for framing the expression of standards in the context of standards-based assessment. Standards-based qualifications facilitate goal-oriented educational activity, recognition of qualifications inside and outside the State, transparency to learners and other qualifications users and quality assurance. The standards for qualifications included in the NFQ must be consistent with the relevant NFQ level, award-type and class. QQI is responsible for developing and maintaining the NFQ. Standards are also expected to be consistent with any applicable PSRB (professional, statutory or regulatory body’s) requirements and the awarding body’s own graduate attribute statements where they exist. Programmes of education and training are provided to enable learners to achieve the relevant qualifications standards. Some qualifications may be wholly or partially achieved through the recognition of non-formal or informal learning (often referred to as the recognition of prior learning (RPL)). Programmes normally build on prior qualifications and other achievements. The overall standards associated with a programme are referred to as the intended programme learning outcomes. Standards must be defined for each of a programme’s exit points, and each of its elements (intended module learning outcomes). Qualifications that are included in the NFQ are awarded by a range of bodies and most provide the corresponding programmes, but some rely on third-party providers. Designated awarding bodies (DABs), including universities, technological universities, institutes of technology, and listed awarding bodies (LABs) are responsible for determining the standards for the qualifications that they award but this responsibility must be exercised in the context of external requirements such as those set the NFQ and by PSRBs where applicable. Similarly, QQI is responsible for determining the standards of the awards it makes and those that are made by providers to whom it has delegated authority. Some qualifications must meet additional standards determined by professional, statutory or regulatory bodies not previously mentioned above (PSRBs). Updating QQI’s assessment infrastructure may require changes/supplementation to, or impact upon, all the above in due course. It is important to appreciate that QQI’s infrastructure is primarily focussed on the quality assurance of standards-based formative and summative assessment and is not intended to guide on how to assess learners in specific situations. Any substantial changes to QQI’s assessment infrastructure will be preceded by consultation documents (green and white papers) that will provide stakeholders with opportunities to express their views on the issues and options at the green paper stage and on proposed new policy or guidelines at the white paper stage. QQI-award specific infrastructure needs to be replaced as soon as practicable. In replacing these we plan to separate policy and procedures relating to assessment that QQI needs to maintain as an awarding body from guidelines on the quality assurance of assessment that will be relevant to all providers. Prior to developing initial thinking on developing the new infrastructure (green papers), we plan to commission (via a public request for tenders) research to establish, having regard to our requirements: 1. FET and HE stakeholder views on standards-based assessment issues (including grading) that might be addressed when updating QQI’s assessment-related infrastructure. By standards-based assessment we mean summative or formative assessment that is aligned to intended learning outcomes. 2. FET and HE stakeholder views on efficacy and opportunities for improvement of QQI’s assessment-related infrastructure that apply exclusively to programmes leading to QQI awards and their providers. 3. The range of approaches to quality assurance of learning outcomes-based assessment primarily of the designated awarding bodies, and secondarily of the PSRBs and other awarding bodies with a significant presence in FET or HE in Ireland. 4. What can be learned from practices in other countries considering selected FET and HE institutions, awarding bodies, regulators, quality assurance agencies for the purpose of promoting and supporting enhanced quality assurance of assessment practices in Ireland. | EN |
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| N/A | Tender Structure XML - Cycle 1 | c4t_8683887_1.xml | N/A | EN |