The Qualifications and Credit Framework (QCF) was the national credit transfer system for education qualification in England, Northern Ireland and Wales until October 2015. The QCF replaced the National Qualifications Framework (NQF) which closed for accreditations at the end of 2010. Students who started qualifications under the NQF completed them as such, but any student starting a qualification from September 2011 completed it under the QCF. Scotland has its own system - the Scottish Credit and Qualifications Framework. The system in England & Wales was also set to change, as the government announced in March 2015 that the QCF rules would be withdrawn and replaced with something 'simpler'. This simpler replacement was the Regulated Qualification Framework.