Additional FAQs on SLQF

According to Table 3 of the SLQF (pages 19-21), the minimum volume of learning required for a Bachelor's degree is 90 credits after SLQL 2, and for a Bachelor's Honours degree it is 120 credits after SLQL 2.

Further, in page 8 of the SLQF, under Volume of Learning section, it is stated that: "In the SLQF credit system, the student workload of a study programme is defined as 1500 notional learning hours per academic year". This requirement is equivalent to 30 credits per academic year.

In view of the above two guidelines given in the SLQF, the minimum duration in years required for a Bachelor's degree is 3 (three) and for a Bachelor's Honours degree it is 4 (four).

Approved at the 1048th meeting of the Commission held on 11.02.2021

  1. The position of the two-year PG programmes in Fine Arts / Visual Arts / Performing Arts (offered by the Universities of Kelaniya and Visual and Performing Arts), to be retained at SLQF Level 10.
  2. Universities need to consider developing new programmes of study, to be placed at SLQF Level 11, where the principal requirement is creative-production based original research, carried out over a period of two years, under the supervision of a suitably qualified university academic. Such programmes may include some taught courses in the 1st year of study, particularly on research methodology in the relevant field. Students may be exempted from these taught courses if they have already obtained a Level 9 or 10 Master's degree in the same field of study.

Note:
The claimed international best practice of recognizing MFA, MVA, and MPA type of degree programs as terminal degrees is true with the American university system but is no longer true with the UK-style university systems after the introduction of 'Practice-based' or 'Practice-led' PG degree programs.

Approved at the 1048th meeting of the Commission held on 11.02.2021

According to the SLQF, the volume of learning required for MPhil (SLQF Level 11) is "minimum 2 years of full-time or equivalent time of original research after SLQL 6 or above", and the volume of learning required for PhD (SLQF Level 12) is "minimum 3 years of full-time or equivalent time of original research after SLQL 6 or above", Credit values are not assigned to MPhil (SLQF Level 11) or PhD (SLQF Level 12) programmes of study due to the fact that they are research-based degrees designed to develop the capacity of a graduate to generate substantive insights in a particular area of study through high quality, original and independent research, and the accumulation of credits are not by themselves sufficient to earn such qualifications.

However, for comparison purposes with the higher education systems in certain countries, an MPhil programme of study can be considered to have a minimum of 60 credits, and a PhD program of study to have a minimum of 90 credits, where one credit is equivalent to a minimum of 100 notional hours.

Approved at the 1067th meeting of the Commission held on 29.11.2021

Based on the information given below, 1 SLQF credit can be considered equivalent to 2 ECTS credits and 5 UK credits.

 
  • The Higher Education Credit Framework for England published by the Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education (QAA) of the United Kingdom has the following information:

      Notional learning hours - The number of hours which it is expected that a learner (at a particular level) will spend, on average, to achieve the specified learning outcomes at that level. This may include time spent in class, directed learning, independent study and assessment.

    Credit value - The number of credits, at a particular level, assigned to a body of learning. The number of credits is based on the estimated learning hours. One credit is typically described as being equal to 10 hours of notional learning.

 
  • ECTS Users' Guide 2015, published by the European Union has following information on the workload during an academic year in European Credit Transfer and Accumulation System (ECTS).

    Workload is an estimation of the time the individual typically needs to complete all learning activities such as lectures, seminars, projects, practical work, work placements and individual study required to achieve the defined learning outcomes in formal learning environments. The correspondence of the full-time workload of an academic year to 60 credits is often formalized by national legal provisions. In most cases, workload ranges from 1,500 to 1,800 hours for an academic year, which means that one credit corresponds to 25 to 30 hours of work. It should be recognised that this represents the typical workload and that for individual students the actual time to achieve the learning outcomes will vary.
 
  • The Sri Lanka Qualifications Framework (SLQF) - Updated version published in 2015 by the University Grants Commission of Sri Lanka has the following information:

    Volume of Learning - The volume of learning at each level is described in terms of credits. In the SLQF credit system, the student workload of a study programme is defined as 1500 notional learning hours per academic year. One credit is considered equivalent to 50 notional learning hours for a taught course, laboratory studies course or field studies/clinical work or a course using any combination of these.

Approved at the 1067th meeting of the Commission held on 29.11.2021