Five staff members from our Center attended the QAPHE International Symposium 2019, organized by the Insitution for Accreditation and Quality Assurance of Professional Higher Education (QAPHE) at Hollywood Hall in Roppongi Hills on 26 November, 2019. Themed as quality assurance of professional higher education and qualifications framework, the event saw a discussion on the possibility of such a framework in Japan with featuring speakers with backgrounds in quality assurance and qualifications framework from Malaysia and Hong Kong.

Professor Zita Mohd Fahmi, who has long been involved in quality assurance in higher education in Malaysia, explained systems to enhance harmonization of education in the ASEAN region including quality assurance, qualifications framework and credit transfer. She pointed to the challenges for regional harmonization such as the disparity in quality assurance systems among ASEAN countries, involvement of all stakeholders at the institutional level and implementation of regional systems into institutions.

Dr. Christina Ng from HKCAAVQ, which accredits educational programs and oversees the Qualifications Framework in Hong Kong, explained student mobility between educational sectors by using the Framework. As the Framework overarched academic, vocational and lifelong learning, Dr. Ng described, flows of students had been observed from (1) vocational to academic qualifications and (2) lifelong to vocational qualifications. Also, she introduced 22 committees established by 23 industries which drew its own competency standards that refer to the Qualifications Framework.

During the panel discussion with speakers both from Japan and overseas, Dr. Kawaguchi Akihiko, Representative Director of QAPHE, introduced Qualifications Framework Level Definition (Level Descriptors), developed in a project assigned by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT). Mr. Yoshihiko Sakamoto, Director of All Japan Animal Management Association, shared a case in which a standardized core curriculum was developed for veterinary nurses in order to establish professional competencies in a specific job field.

Various opinions were heard during the discussion such as the need of harmonization among various stakeholders of vocational education including ministries other than MEXT, and a system where employers are able to recognize skills and knowledge acquired by students so that more of them can be employed based on job positions rather than on loyalty to a company.