HND Program Background

The SQA HND programme was introduced into China in 2003, and has been successfully running jointly by Chinese Services Center Scholarly Exchange (CSCSE) and Scottish Qualifications Authority (SQA) for five years. The programme has been accepted by more and more people during the past 5 years. Presently, more than 20 Chinese institutions are running the SQA-HND courses and more than 30 foreign universities agreed to accept the graduates for one-year top-up degree courses (the list of Chinese institutions and British universities are listed in the attachment). At the same time, the graduates of the programme have successfully enrolled into more than 100 universities in other 12 countries except UK.

The SQA HND programme provides the opportunity of study abroad to the Chinese high school graduates. The programme students will have 3 years study at Chinese universities, in the first half year，students will have their foundation studies mainly in the English language skills to achieve 2 credits, and then two and half year academic studies to achieve 30 credits for HND and 8 credits for academic course provided by USA universities. It is necessary to point out that all the 3 years they will be taught in English, and at the very beginning of the courses, bilingual teaching method will be introduced.

Currently, we have already got more than 15,000 students enrolled in this program with 5 cohorts from the year 2003 to 2008. So far, 5,000 graduates of three cohorts of programme students have successfully finished their study at Chinese universities, got their HND Diploma issued by SQA, and continued their top-up study at foreign universities.

CSCSE and SQA
The Chinese Service Center for Scholarly Exchange (CSCSE) is a public institution affiliated to the Chinese Ministry of Education (MOE). As a legal entity, the CSCSE provides services for study abroad, students returning from overseas study, study in China, and international education exchange and cooperation.
The Business scope of the CSCSE covers: publicly-funded and self-supported overseas study, accreditation of foreign academic credentials for returned scholars, organizing the China International Education Exhibition Tour and the Studying in China Education Exhibitation, etc.

CSCSE has invested and founded two affiliating companies: Beijing Chivast Education International Co., and Beijing Yinhong International Consulting Co., Ltd. The former serves the self-supported students bound for studying abroad. The latter is majoring the service of SQA HND China Programme as well as the International English Language Teachers Training, Intercommunication of Sino-foreign Institutions, etc.
SQA (Scottish Qualifications Authority) is an executive non-departmental public body (NDPB) sponsored by the Scottish Executive Education Department. It is the national body in Scotland responsible for the development, accreditation, assessment and certification of qualifications other than degrees.
The overall aim of the SQA is to manage the qualifications system below degree level to allow students to fulfill their potential to participate in the economy, society and communities of Scotland.

Programme Characteristics
1. Student registration: In the three years study in China, students register in SQA.

2. Teaching materials: All the textbooks are introduced into China from the UK and used in the HND programme.

3. Overseas studies to the UK: When the student registered at SQA-HND programme, they will be informed the entry requirement for getting a degree at British universities. In accordance with the application, the foreign partner universities will issue the conditional offers in the second year of their study.

4. The overseas studies to other countries except UK: After successful completion of the SQA-HND programme, the qualified students could choose to top-up their degree course at nearly 30 universities in the UK as well as some universities in other countries such as USA, Australia, Canada, Netherlands, New Zealand, Malaysia, etc.

5. Visa Application: CSCSE will assist the programme students to hand in the application in groups to the visa sections of the foreign embassies in China.

6. Scholarship: Outstanding students of SQA-HND programme have the opportunity to apply the scholarship provided by CSCSE and foreign partner universities to support their overseas studies.
Development of SQA-HND in China
1. 25 November 2003, the Deputy General Director of CSCSE Mr. Shao Wei signed the Memorandum of Cooperation with the CEO of SQA Mr. Anton Collela for the cooperation of SQA-HND development in China.
2. September 2003, the first group of 800 students registered to the SQA-HND programme.
3. February 2004, the vice-minister of Department of Scottish Enterprise and Life-long Learning, Mr. Lewis Macdonald participated the China International Higher Education Exhibition and visited some of the Chinese SQA-HND Centers.
4. In 2004, the Liaison Office between SQA and CSCSE was established.
5. September 2004, the second group of 2,200 students registered to the SQA-HND Programme.
6. 25 October 2004, the Prime Minister of Scotland attended the Education Forum between China and Scotland and had a meeting with the representatives from Chinese SQA-HND centers.
7. 25 January 2005, the Vice Prime Minister of Scotland visited China and met the SQA-HND progromme students.
8. September 2005, the third group of 2,000 students registered to SQA-HND Programme.
9. 4 June 2005, the Memorandum of Cooperation for national professional qualifications issuing was signed between SQA and the Occupational Skill Testing Authority (OSTA) of Ministry of Labour and Social Security, PRC. Chinese graduates of SQA-HND Programme are qualified in obtaining the national professional qualifications automatically without additional examinations.
10. 21 October 2005, the Memorandum of Cooperation for HND Programme Examination was signed between SQA and National Education Examination Authority (NEEA) of Ministry of Education of China. The NEEA will take the responsibilities of the examination arrangement for the SQA-HND Programme in China.
11. June 2006, the first cohort of graduates of 800 students completed the SQA HND programme successully and half of them went abroad to get the degree in the following academic year.
12. September 2006, the third cohort of 2,200 students registered to SQA-HND Programme.
13. June 2007, the second cohort of programme graduates of 1,800 completed their study and more than 700 chose to study at foreign univereisities.
14. September 2007, the fourth cohort of 2,500 students enrolled into the programme successfully.
15. June 2008, the third cohort of the programme graduates of 2,000 got the SQA HND qualifications and more than 900 enrolled into foreign universities.
16. 8 April 2008, the Deputy General Director of CSCSE Mr. Shao Wei signed the renewed Memorandum of Cooperation with the CEO of SQA Ms. Janet Brown for the second stage cooperation of SQA-HND development in China.
17. September 2008, the fifth cohort of 5,000 students registered with the programme and started their study in Chinese HND universities.

Programme Model
 1st half a year: International Foundation Programme (2 credits)
 2nd half a year & 2nd & 3rd year: HND programme (30 credits) + Academic Studies (8 credits)
 4th year: Top-up to Bachelor Degree at Foreign universities
 5th year: Master Degree study at Foreign universities

Quality Assurance system
Teaching quality assurance
In order to guarantee the teaching quality of SQA HND programme, SQA has a set of strict system of Internal and External Validation. SQA will arrange experts to validate the Chinese centers twice a year for the teaching qualities. The unqualified centers will be required to change or even canceled the qualification to be a teaching center. USA universities, who provide the 8 credits course of academic, will send their tutors to HND centers with their own syllabus, teaching plan and textbook, to guarantee the teaching quality. At the same time, Chinese centers also have their own teaching management system. The combination of the above provides effective inspection and surveillance mechanism.

Teaching resources
In order to guarantee advanced teaching resources for the students, Chinese centers are strictly implementing the SQA’s and USA universities’ instructions and the global unification standard and set up "Learning Resource Center" together with CSCSE in China, which is responsible for textbook introduction and teaching support. The relaated textbooks of HND major courses have been introduced into China and published by China Modern Economic Publishing House.

English language preparation
According to the entry requirements of foreign universities, students must achieve IELTS 5.5 or above in English language proficiency. After half a year English language foundation course study in the first year of the programme, most of the students could communicate with their teachers fluently in English. In the following two and half year HND major course and USA universities’ academic course studies, all courses will be taught in English. At the same time, all course works and examinations must be done in English. This will provide students with a complete English environment to improve their language skills.

Financial preparation
The SQA-HND programme is designed for the purpose of overseas studies. All families should be in the middle class or above, and their income could afford the cost of overseas studies for the programme students. At the same time, all families are required to have enough deposits to prove their ability after students register the programme.