On 24 October, the Education Bureau announced the implementation of the Award Titles Scheme (ATS) and Use of QF Credit under the Qualifications Framework (QF).

The ATS aims to standardise the use of award titles that reflects the QF levels and areas of study; the Use of QF Credit provides clear and transparent information on the size or volume of learning of their programmes and the efforts expected from learners to complete the programmes.

Important timelines

Under the implementation timetable, all new programmes registered for the first time in the Qualifications Register (QR) on or after 1 January have to comply with the ATS and must show the QF credit value if they are at QF levels 1-4. 

From 1 January , all programmes should conform to the ATS before they can be registered on the QR and all programmes at QF levels 1-4 must show their QF credit values.

Based on the above timelines, all new programmes at QF levels 1-4 undergoing the ICAAE’s accreditation from 1 July should conform to the ATS and include QF credit values to ensure that they will meet the requirements for uploading into the QF from 1 January .