– Further education and training (FET): Education and training between grades 10 and 12. This is after compulsory schooling but before higher education. It represents levels 2 to 4 of the National Qualifications Framework (NQF).
– Umalusi: The Council for Quality Assurance in General and Further Education and Training (GET and FET bands).
– Higher Education (HE): All learning programmes leading to qualifications higher than Grade 12 or its equivalent in terms of the NQF, including tertiary education. It represents levels 5 to 8 of the NQF.
– Council on Higher Education (CHE): An independent statutory body established in 1998 in terms of the Higher Education Act of 1997 to advise the Minister of Education on matters relating to HE policy issues and to assume executive responsibility for quality assurance within HE and training.
– Higher Education Quality Committee (HEQC): A permanent CHE sub-committee, with the mandate to promote quality assurance in HE, audit the quality assurance mechanisms of HE institutions and accredit programmes of HE.
– South African Qualifications Authority (SAQA): The overall body for accreditations, which monitors all quality assurers. It registers all qualifications on the NQF, coordinates the setting of standards for the different qualifications and ensures quality assurance for all qualifications.
– Registered private higher education institution: Officially registered by the Department of Education in terms of the Higher Education Act.
– Accreditation: Recognititon status granted for a stipulated period of time to a programme after an evaluation indicates that it meets or exceeds minimum thresholds of educational quality. In the case of applications for new programmes, accreditation is the final phase in the accreditation process and is preceded by the candidacy and mid-term check phase, each of which has its own requirements..
– Provisional accreditation: Accreditation for a stipulated period of time with the requirement for the provider to attend to specified problem areas.
– Certificate: An official document recording a level of achievement of a learner at NQF level 5 carrying a minimum of 120 credits.
– Diploma: A qualification awarded by an educational institution for completing a course of study at NQF level 5 carrying a minimum of 240 credits.
– Degree: A qualification awarded by an educational institution to a learner who has completed a course of study at NQF level 6 carrying a minimum of 360 credits.
– Registered qualification: Officially registered (recorded) in terms of the NQF.
– Articulation: The possibility of a learner moving from one qualification to another at the same NQF level (horizontal articulation) or to a higher qualification (vertical articulation) on the basis of the credits obtained in a particular course of study.
– Recognition of prior learning (RPL): The comparison of the previous learning and experience of a learner, howsoever obtained, against the learning outcomes required for a specified qualification, and the acceptance for purposes of qualification of that which meets the requirements.
– Vocational qualifications: These are qualifications which are specifically designed to respond to the skills required by employers in the workplace.