To ensure the credibility of qualifications awarded by a wide range of education and training providers under the QF, we need to develop a mechanism of academic and vocational accreditation to assure the quality of these qualifications. To this end, the Accreditation of Academic and Vocational Qualifications Bill (the Bill) was introduced into the Legislative Council on 6 July 2005. This bill provides for the accreditation of academic and vocational qualifications under the Qualifications Framework (QF) by the Hong Kong Council for Accreditation of Academic and Vocational Qualifications (HKCAAVQ) and for related and consequential matters. The Bill was passed by the Legislative Council at its meeting on 2 May 2007.

According to the Ordinance, HKCAAVQ will be specified as the Accreditation Authority and the Qualifications Register (QR) Authority. It is tasked with the responsibility of assuring the quality of qualifications recognised under the QF. Also, as the QR Authority, it is required to administer the QR.

The Ordinance will enable HKCAAVQ to assess academic and vocational programmes conducted by non-self-accrediting institutions. As such, self-accrediting institutions* will not be affected.

As all the eight UGC-funded institutions begin to play an increasingly active role in the provision of self-financing sub-degree programmes, they have formed a Joint Quality Review Committee (JQRC) to oversee the quality of such programmes and to assess these programmes for classification onto the QR. There will be cross-membership between the JQRC and the HKCAAVQ to facilitate communication and the benchmarking of standards.

* Remark: The nine self-accrediting institutions are: City University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong Baptist University, Lingnan University, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, The Hong Kong Institute of Education (applicable to teacher education programmes only), The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, The University of Hong Kong, and The Open University of Hong Kong.