AQF levels 1–10 and the overseas qualification names people actually hold: what maps, what does not, and why nobody will publish the mapping

The AQF is a framework of levels, not a table of foreign degree names, and that distinction is the source of nearly every disappointment people report about Australian assessments. Nothing in the AQF says what a three-year Indian B.Com or a Nigerian HND or a French Licence is worth. What the AQF says is what learning outcomes a qualification at each level must produce; the job of placing your award against those outcomes belongs to an assessing authority, using a reference you cannot buy at a sensible price.

The one thing you can do without anyone’s permission is read the levels properly. Most people misread three of them.

The ten levels, in the AQF’s own words

These are the AQF’s level summaries, quoted from its AQF levels page. The AQF states the levels “are an indication of the relative complexity and/or depth of achievement and the autonomy required to demonstrate that achievement.”

Level	AQF’s summary of a graduate at this level	Qualification types the AQF places here
1	“knowledge and skills for initial work, community involvement and/or further learning”	Certificate I
2	“knowledge and skills for work in a defined context and/or further learning”	Certificate II
3	“theoretical and practical knowledge and skills for work and/or further learning”	Certificate III
4	“theoretical and practical knowledge and skills for specialised and/or skilled work and/or further learning”	Certificate IV
5	“specialised knowledge and skills for skilled/paraprofessional work and/or further learning”	Diploma
6	“broad knowledge and skills for paraprofessional/highly skilled work and/or further learning”	Advanced Diploma, Associate Degree
7	“broad and coherent knowledge and skills for professional work and/or further learning”	Bachelor Degree, Vocational Degree
8	“advanced knowledge and skills for professional or highly skilled work and/or further learning”	Bachelor Honours Degree, Graduate Certificate, Graduate Diploma
9	(Masters level)	Masters Degree — Research, Coursework, and Extended
10	(Doctoral level)	Doctoral Degree — Research and Professional

Two qualification types deliberately sit outside the ladder. The Senior Secondary Certificate of Education is “not located at a particular level”. The Undergraduate Certificate, introduced after the AQF review and the COVID-19 crisis, is “a higher education qualification of six months duration” and is likewise “not located at a particular level in the Australian Qualifications Framework, however they cover AQF levels 5, 6, or 7.”

The AQF also notes the sector split: “Vocational education and training is offered at AQF Levels 1 to 8 and higher education ranges from AQF Levels 5 to 10.” Levels 5 to 8 are therefore shared territory, which is exactly where most overseas sub-degree and postgraduate-diploma awards land.

The five traps

Trap 1 — Level 8 is above level 7, and that does not help you. A Graduate Diploma is AQF level 8. A Bachelor Degree is AQF level 7. The number is higher; the substitution does not work. VETASSESS states the rule flatly:

“we will not assess an Australian Graduate Diploma or comparable overseas postgraduate diploma, either alone or in combination with underpinning sub-degree qualifications, for comparability to the educational level of an Australian Bachelor degree… Therefore, a qualification assessed at AQF Graduate Diploma level cannot be used to meet the requirements of occupations that require a minimum of an AQF Bachelor degree level.”

It then adds where the level-8 award does work: “The Postgraduate Diploma may, however, be considered for assessment against the requirements of occupations that require a qualification at AQF Diploma or Advanced Diploma/Associate degree level.” A level-8 qualification counted at level 5 or 6. That is not a mistake in the rule; it is the rule. Individual occupation pages repeat it — the Internal Auditor criteria say VETASSESS “does not currently accept relevant studies at Graduate Certificate and Graduate Diploma levels on their own.” The full treatment is in when a graduate diploma counts at VETASSESS.

Trap 2 — “Diploma” is a false friend in almost every direction. In the AQF, Diploma is level 5 and its purpose is “advanced skilled or paraprofessional work”. In India, a “Post Graduate Diploma” follows a bachelor’s degree. In much of Europe, a Diplom was a long first degree. In Nigeria, an HND is a distinct award from a polytechnic. None of these read across on the strength of the word. Neither does the reverse: an Australian Advanced Diploma is level 6, one rung below a bachelor’s.

Trap 3 — a Bachelor Honours Degree is level 8, and an unnamed “Honours” is not the same thing. The AQF places the Bachelor Honours Degree at level 8, separate from the level-7 Bachelor Degree. In several systems the word “Honours” denotes a grade classification on an ordinary three-year degree rather than an additional year of research. Two documents saying “Honours” can therefore describe different structures at different AQF levels.

Trap 4 — years are evidence, not the criterion. VETASSESS lists what it actually considers when placing an overseas award: “The education system of the country where qualifications were obtained; The accreditation status and recognition of the awarding institution and the program of study in the home country; The level, structure, length and content of the program of study undertaken.” Length is one of four inputs, and it is third in a compound with structure and content. A three-year degree is not disqualified for being three years, and a four-year degree is not automatically level 7. This is the same finding reached from the ACS side in a three-year Indian BCA or B.Sc (IT) under ACS and from the Nigerian side in an HND or three-year bachelor under VETASSESS.

Trap 5 — level and field are assessed separately, and both can fail. Australian authorities run two tests, not one. VETASSESS asks whether the award is “comparable to the educational level” required, and separately whether it contains a “highly relevant major field of study”. ACS does the same in different vocabulary: it reviews the qualification “to determine Australian Qualification Framework (AQF) comparability”, then reports whether the ICT content is a “Major, Minor or if the IT content is Insufficient”. Getting the level right and the field wrong is the most common way a strong degree produces a weak outcome; see the VETASSESS ‘highly relevant major’ requirement and ACS ‘closely related’ major, occupation by occupation.

Why there is no published mapping — and who does hold one

There is a document that answers “what is my overseas qualification worth on the AQF”, and you are explicitly not its intended reader. VETASSESS names it on its Qualification Comparison Service page: “We use guidelines published by the Australian Government Department of Education to assess the comparability of overseas qualifications.” Those are the Country Education Profiles, sold by subscription, and the Department’s own page says they “are not intended to be used by individuals wanting to know how their overseas qualification is recognised in Australia.”

So any page that hands you a clean table of “Indian B.Com = AQF 7” is doing one of two things: reading a paid product it is not licensed to republish, or guessing. We have not bought it, we have not read your country’s entry, and we are not going to tell you what it says. The alternatives that exist, and what each one is actually good for, are set out in the Country Education Profiles paywall and the free alternatives.

What you can establish for yourself, for free

1. Your own system’s official statement of what the award is. The awarding country’s qualifications framework, ministry or accreditation body describing the qualification type, its entry requirement, its nominal length and what it leads to. This is the single most useful document you can put in front of an assessor, and it is usually free.
2. The accreditation status of the awarding institution and the programme, in the home country, at the time you studied. VETASSESS lists this as one of its four inputs, and it is the input most often missing from applications.
3. A complete transcript, and a syllabus where the transcript is thin. VETASSESS: “If your transcripts do not provide sufficient information regarding the units of study undertaken, please provide additional evidence, such as a course syllabus, to clarify this.”
4. Which authority you are actually dealing with, because they do not use the same references. See which Australian authority assesses which occupation and, for why two authorities can place the same award differently, one award, four rulebooks.
5. For New Zealand, the equivalent framework is the NZQF and it is a ten-level framework too — but the levels are not interchangeable with the AQF’s, and neither authority treats a level number from the other as a finding. See NZQF vs AQF levels.

What this page does not do

It does not place your qualification. Nothing here is an assessment, and no Australian authority is bound by anything on this site. The AQF text above is quoted from the AQF’s own pages as read on 3 September 2026; the AQF’s main policy document remains the AQF Second Edition January 2013, with subsequent addenda. If you need a level opinion with a name on it, two paid services exist and both say what they are: VETASSESS’s Qualification Comparison Service, and the Department of Education’s own assessment for individuals. Neither binds a professional regulator, and a professional regulator’s decision is a different question again — see accreditation and academic recognition are not the same thing.