Slovenian qualifications framework: From global trends and European recommendations to the Slovenian qualifications framework ACT

Borut Mikulec and Klara Skubic Ermenc

Summary:  This paper considers the Europeanisation of education, a process which is taking place in the European Union (EU) as a result of the establishment of a common education policy, and which is playing a part in determining the development of education policies in EU member states and candidate countries. The concept of Europeanisation serves as a methodological tool with which to analyse one of the fundamental political instruments of European education policy, namely, the European Qualifications Framework and its core concept of learning outcomes, and also the national qualifications frameworks that are emerging under its influence. In our analysis of the Slovenian Qualifications Framework, the authors demonstrate that the formulation of both the European as well as the national qualifications frameworks are influenced by two factors: the Anglo-Saxon countries, which were the first to establish a qualifications framework of the modern type; and global neoliberal policy, with its tendency towards the deregulation, marketisation, and commodification of education. The paper also aims to show that national qualifications frameworks in continental Europe have resulted in frameworks that differ considerably from qualifications in the Anglo-Saxon countries. It appears that the effects of globalisation and Europeanisation on education are unpredictable, since policies are never simply copied into national systems. The paper concludes with a discussion of the recently adopted Slovenian Qualifications Framework Act.