Higher education funding in Wales is to be linked to a new credit framework for courses. The Higher Education Credit Initiative, launched by the Welsh HE CATS Forum, involves all Welsh universities and higher education colleges in a system which awards credit for achievement in notional hours of study.

The framework, which will award credits at three levels for undergraduate study and an additional level for postgraduate masters, is designed to be compatible with a system already used by Welsh further education colleges.

The Further Education Funding Council for Wales has linked the FE credit model to college funding, and the Higher Education Funding Council for Wales is expected to follow suit.

The HEFCW has made a commitment to fund continuing education on a credit basis from September, and in a recent circular indicated its intention to extend credit-based funding to part-time courses by 1996.

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Sonia Reynolds, a member of the Wales Access Unit which carried out a year-long consultation on the new HE credit system, believes the funding council will eventually bring the whole of Welsh higher education into a credit funding system.

The HE framework defines credit as an educational currency measuring the volume of learning in notional hours at a given level. The system was based on ten notional hours in higher education, and 30 in FE - reflecting different course structures and modes of learning in the two sectors. Dr Reynolds said she expected the framework to foster closer links between FE and HE, and make it easier for students to move from college to university.

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"The idea is that the two systems should be as integrated as possible without losing sight of the distinctive features of both FE and HE," she said.