Michael Creed (Cork North West, Fine Gael)
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821. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if he will clarify the situation regarding the validity of qualifications received from previous regional technical colleges and institutes of technology, which have now been upgraded to technological universities; the status of these qualifications and of the awarding bodies; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [55032/22]

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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Awards and qualifications are associated with the awarding bodies which were in existence at the time that these awards were conferred. Legally these awards and qualifications cannot be changed subsequently. Therefore, qualifications obtained in Regional Technical Colleges and Institutes of Technology cannot now be changed to qualifications of Technological Universities.

A student who commenced a programme which would lead to an award and qualification in an Institute of Technology, which subsequently became a Technological University prior to the student graduating, will graduate with a Technological University qualification.

It should be noted that awards issued by Institutes of Technology:

- are fully recognised for domestic and international purposes and this status can be confirmed by Ireland’s National Academic Recognition Information Centre (NARIC)

- are included within the National Framework of Qualifications (NFQ). The NFQ is a 10-level system used to describe qualifications in the Irish education and training system.

Information on the NFQ can be viewed at www.qqi.ie/what-we-do/the-qualifications-syste m/national-framework-of-qualifications.