Quality and Qualifications Ireland (QQI) and the Education Bureau of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government (HKSARG) have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU)for cooperation in the area of qualifications frameworks.
The two agencies are responsible for quality assurance in education and training in their respective countries. Under the terms of the MOU the agencies will cooperate in the development and understanding of qualifications frameworks.
The MOU was signed on 23 September 2016 by the Deputy Secretary for Education, Mr Brian Lo and QQI’s Director of Quality Assurance, Mr Brian Maguire. The signing ceremony was witnessed by the Permanent Secretary for Education, Mrs Marion Lai, and the Deputy Consul General of Ireland in Hong Kong, Ms Isobel O’Connor.
“Today’s signing reflects a high level of mutual respect and confidence between our two organisations and a shared commitment to quality learning experiences for our students. We hope that working together we can increase recognition of qualifications in both countries to facilitate transparency and mobility,” said Dr Maguire.
This MOU will build on the results of a joint project carried out by the EU Commission and the Education Bureau, which compared the Hong Kong Qualifications Framework with the European Qualifications Framework. Understanding how these two frameworks relate to each other, makes it much easier to compare Hong Kong qualifications to those in other European countries. The results of this comparability study were published in March 2016 and can be found here.