European and National Qualifications Frameworks (Editorial)

Damijan Štefanc

Summary:  The present thematic issue of the “Journal of Contemporary Educational Studies” addresses a topic that has been the subject of public and professional debate since at least 2005, when the national debate on the European Qualifications Framework (EQF) started to emerge in Slovenia. In January 2010 the Interministerial Working Group on the Development of the National Qualifications Framework (NQF) – intended to be in line with the EQF – was formed, and in the same year the expert group drawing up professional guidelines for the interministerial group also started work. So it was about a year ago that the editorial board of the “Journal of Contemporary Educational Studies” decided it was time to encourage debate on the advantages and traps of the national framework, its structure, its role and the ways in which it should be introduced to Slovenia. The response to our invitation exceeded our expectations; hence, we decided to publish the selected thematic contributions in two consecutive issues of the journal – some in the present issue, and the remaining in the fifth issue, which readers will receive in the second week of November.