Ireland's NFQ levels, read for someone holding an overseas degree — and the Level 7 / Level 8 line that decides most Irish applications

The Irish National Framework of Qualifications runs from Level 1 to Level 10. If you hold a degree from outside Ireland, you can ignore most of it. The two levels that decide almost every Irish application are Level 7 and Level 8, and the difference between them is not a technicality — Irish regulators write their entry rules against one or the other by name.

The short version

QQI’s own descriptions of the higher-education major awards, read from its framework page on 3 September 2026:

NFQ level	Major award	What QQI says about length and volume
6	Higher Certificate	“normally awarded after completion of an accredited programme of two years’ duration (120 ECTS credits)”
7	Ordinary Bachelor Degree	“normally awarded after completion of an accredited programme of three years’ duration (180 ECTS credits)”; also available as a one-year add-on (60 ECTS) after a Higher Certificate
8	Honours Bachelor Degree	“normally awarded following completion of a programme of three or four years’ duration (180-240 ECTS credits)”, with longer programmes in fields such as architecture, dentistry and medicine
8	Higher Diploma	one year, 60 ECTS, “typically in a different field of learning than the initial award”
9	Masters Degree	taught: “one to two years’ duration (60-120 ECTS credits)”; research master’s “typically of two years’ duration, although they are not credit rated”
9	Postgraduate Diploma	one year, 60 ECTS, “usually made in a field of learning different from that in which a learner is already qualified”
10	Doctoral Degree	“no credit volume associated”; “generally at least three” years

Level 6 also carries a second, different award — the Advanced Certificate, a further-education award of 120 FET credits. Level 6 is the one level in the framework offered “in both higher and further education”, which is why a Level 6 result on a comparability statement is the most ambiguous outcome you can get.

The one distinction that costs people years

Level 7 and Level 8 can both be three years long. An Ordinary Bachelor Degree is 180 ECTS over three years. An Honours Bachelor Degree can also be 180 ECTS over three years. Duration does not separate them, and this is the single most common misreading by holders of three-year degrees from outside Ireland.

What separates them, in QQI’s own framing, is progression. Of the Ordinary Bachelor Degree it says: “holders of this award do not generally gain immediate access to programmes leading to Second Cycle awards in Ireland.” Of the Honours Bachelor Degree it says simply that it “is a Bologna First Cycle qualification”. Level 8 is the normal gateway to a Level 9 master’s; Level 7 generally is not, and Ireland publishes an explicit repair — “programmes of one year’s duration (60 ECTS credits) leading to Honours Bachelor Degrees available to holders of the Ordinary Bachelor Degree.”

That one-year add-on is the mechanism most people are looking for when they ask how to move from a Level 7 outcome to a Level 8 requirement.

Where the line actually bites

These are the published thresholds, read from each body’s own material:

• Solicitors. The Law Society of Ireland’s route for a graduate of a university outside Ireland, the EEA and the UK is headed “Non EEA/ UK Graduate (Level 7 degree minimum)” and states: “Your degree must be at minimum level 7 on the Irish National Framework of Qualifications (INFQ)”. Level 7 is the floor, in any subject. Below it, the Preliminary Examination applies — see the Preliminary Examination and who has to sit it.
• Post-primary teaching. The Teaching Council’s curricular subject requirements demand a qualifying degree “equivalent to at least Level 8 on the National Framework of Qualifications (NFQ)” carrying “at least 180 ECTS … with the specific study of [the subject] comprising at least 60 ECTS credits”. Level 8 is a floor and the ECTS distribution is a second, independent test — see the subject criteria your degree is measured against.
• Chartered Engineer. Engineers Ireland’s route guidelines are written in NFQ terms throughout: a “Bachelor’s (Honours) degree (Level 8 on the National Framework for Qualifications)”, a “Bachelor’s degree (Level 7 …)”, a “Master’s degree (Level 9 …)”. The level you hold changes which route you are eligible for and how many years of experience it demands — see the route for a degree that is not accredited.
• Psychology. The PSI requires “Completion of an overseas qualification that is equivalent to an Irish accredited honours bachelors degree” — Level 8, with subject-coverage conditions on top.

Note what is common to all four. None of them accepts a level on its own. The level is a gate you have to be above before the body starts examining what you actually studied.

What a comparability statement will and will not tell you

QQI compares a foreign qualification “to an Irish qualification of a similar major award-type and level on the Irish National Framework of Qualifications (NFQ), where possible” — the qualifier is QQI’s. The database repeats it: “not all awards can be compared with a specific major award type in the Irish NFQ and have, therefore, been compared with a level on the NFQ only.”

So there are two possible shapes of answer, and they are not equally useful:

• Award type plus level — e.g. compared to an Honours Bachelor Degree at Level 8. This is what you want, because Irish rules are written in exactly this vocabulary.
• Level only — e.g. compared to Level 7. Adequate where a body sets a bare level floor, such as the Law Society’s Level 7 minimum. Weaker where the body’s rule names an award type, or where Level 7 and Level 8 both exist and the distinction is the whole question.

The statement is free, so find out which one you get before planning around either. What it is and is not is set out at Irish NARIC comparability statements cost nothing.

Two things the NFQ level does not decide

It does not decide professional recognition. QQI: “We do not comment on professional awards, regulated professions, licences to practice.” A Level 8 comparison does not make you registrable — see an Irish NARIC statement does not register you. The general distinction is set out at professional accreditation and academic recognition are two systems.

It does not decide subject match. Every body above adds a content test on top of the level. A Level 8 degree in the wrong discipline, or with the right discipline at the wrong credit volume, fails the second test regardless of how the first went.

What to do

1. Look your qualification up in the free NARIC Ireland database and note whether you get an award type or a level only.
2. Read the target body’s own rule and write down which it names — a level, an award type, an ECTS volume, or all three.
3. If your outcome is Level 7 and the requirement is Level 8, the published Irish repair is the one-year 60-ECTS add-on to an Honours Bachelor Degree. Confirm with the specific institution that its add-on is open to your qualification before enrolling.
4. If your outcome is Level 6, find out first whether the comparison points at the higher-education award (Higher Certificate) or the further-education one (Advanced Certificate). They sit at the same level and behave differently.

What this page does not do

It does not tell you what level your qualification will be placed at. That is QQI’s published finding, qualification by qualification, and no general rule about “three-year degrees” or “four-year degrees” substitutes for looking yours up.

It also does not predict whether any Irish body will accept your qualification. Each holds that discretion under its own rules.

All framework descriptions and thresholds above were read from the bodies’ own pages on 3 September 2026.