Student Achievement Component

• • Variable credit values
  • National certificates and diplomas
  • Studying extra courses
  • Full-year programmes
  • Studying integrated programmes
  • Studying more than normal learning hours
  • EFTS value - accelerated or compressed programmes
  • EFTS value - convergence of methods
  • EFTS value of qualifications
  • Course size
  • Additional courses
  • EFTS factors of courses

Studying extra courses

When extra courses are optional for learners, the extra courses usually qualify for additional SAC[1] funding.

In these circumstances, a learner’s enrolment may generate more than one EFTS[2] unit in a 12-month period, for example:

• additional papers taken in any single academic year towards a qualification requiring more than one year of study
• optional summer schools when learners undertake additional courses towards their qualification
• separate foundation courses that do not earn credits towards the approved qualification but run in parallel to the mainstream programme of study. Such courses enable learners with gaps in their entry qualifications to gain the necessary background knowledge and skills to complete their qualification in the normal period.

Where extra courses become the norm for a qualification Rule SAC050[3] applies.

 

• [1]

  Student Achievement Component fund (SAC)

• [2]

  Equivalent Full-Time Student (EFTS)

• [3]

  Rule SAC050: EFTS value of qualifications - studying extra courses

  If additional courses become the expected norm for all learners undertaking a qualification, the Tertiary Education Commission (TEC) regards this as a significant change to the qualification, requiring new approval by an external quality assurance body. The TEC would reset the Equivalent Full-Time Student (EFTS) value of that qualification to no more than one EFTS unit for each 12 month period (unless it approved an exception to this limit).