In 2008, the New Zealand Qualifications Authority (NZQA), responsible for the quality assurance of all qualifications, embarked on a review of all qualifications between Levels 1 and 6 on the 10-level National Qualifications Framework (NQF). The review process mandated the reviewed qualifications to be founded on outcome statements of graduate profiles with progressions onto education and employment pathways. New qualifications would replace national qualifications based on lists of core compulsory and elective competency-based standards. This article provides background to the author’s perceived move of New Zealand qualifications from the realist to a relational perspective towards framing qualifications, with the relational perspective affording opportunities for qualifications to better recognise the complex nature of graduate or occupational identities. The current recommendations for the assurance of national consistency of graduate outcomes across qualifications are deliberated and recommendations are made for curriculum and assessment developments to support the shift towards the relational perspective. © 2016 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis.
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