Background

The government is seeking a consistent and standardised approach to quality assurance across the non-university tertiary education sector which is focused on driving quality improvements. 

Driving quality improvements is integral to NZQA’s evaluative quality assurance framework which is underpinned by a principle of high trust and high accountability.  However, there are currently only a limited number of ways that trust is acknowledged in the quality assurance framework.  Examples are NZQA’s preferential track for course approval and accreditation applications and Institutes of Technology and Polytechnics Quality “quality assured status” for institutes of technology and polytechnics (ITPs).

This paper proposes using four quality assurance mechanisms as incentives and sanctions to recognise the performance of a tertiary education provider in terms of educational quality.  The new system would be more responsive to levels of quality and reflect the high-trust and high-accountability environment.

The proposals outlined in this paper apply to all tertiary education organisations except the university sector and industry training organisations (ITOs).  Quality assurance of the university sector is managed by the New Zealand Vice-Chancellors’ Committee.  Over time it is expected that an equivalent range of incentives and sanctions will be developed for ITOs.

Consultation paper: Improving performance in tertiary education: using quality assurance incentives and sanctions for Institutes of Technology and Polytechnics, Wananga, Private Training Establishments and Government Training Establishments (July 2010) (PDF, 236KB).