The first national system to guarantee the quality of all non-university qualifications, from basic certificates for literacy and numeracy to postgraduate degrees, will be set up under draft legislation announced yesterday.
The Qualifications (Education and Training) Bill will also provide new safeguards for students at private colleges. It will ensure that institutes of technology, if they become universities, cannot give up their sub-degree courses against the wishes of the Minister for Education.
The Minister, Mr Martin, said yesterday that until now there had been no mechanism to allow students to determine their educational goals and then progress through the necessary courses and institutions to achieve them.
From now on, "all providers of education and training will need to inform students of the transfer and progression routes that are available for them if they undertake a particular course".
The Bill will set up a national qualifications authority to oversee two bodies: the Further Education and Training Awards Council, which will award qualifications such as certificates and apprenticeships currently awarded by the National Council for Vocational Awards, FAS, CERT and Teagasc; and the Higher Education and Training Awards Council, which will award qualifications, from certificates to postgraduate degrees, currently awarded by the National Council for Educational Awards and other bodies.
The universities will be obliged to work with the new qualifications authority, said Mr Martin. In future, nobody who had done several years on an institute of technology course would have to "start all over again on a university course."
The draft legislation provides for institutes of technology to award their own certificates, diplomas and degrees. A review committee is due to report in the next few days on applications by Cork and Waterford ITs to award their own qualifications.
It will also be possible for FAS and similar bodies to apply to award their own qualifications, Mr Martin said.
A key section of the Bill will ensure that if any institute of technology becomes a university in the future, it will remain a provider of both degree and sub-degree courses, as the ITs are present, if that is the policy of the minister of the day.
Mr Martin warned yesterday against repeating the "very damaging" errors of the British system, where the polytechnic colleges were allowed to become universities too quickly and without adequate monitoring of standards.
The Bill will also provide new safeguards for students enrolled in private colleges on courses of three months or more. Where such a college has a course certified by one of the new councils, it must also have in place a bond which would guarantee the return of the student's fees should the college cease to operate.
Department officials said private colleges would have to inform students whether every course being offered was State-certified and therefore bonded.
If such a college closed, the appropriate awarding council must seek a place for students on another comparable course.