SecQual

Fees and Financial Assistance for NZQF qualifications in 2011
S2011/019 - 17 May 2011

Fees and Financial Assistance for NZQF qualifications in 2011

Fees for 2011 reflect the change to the rate of GST that came into effect on 1 October 2010.

Fee Structure for 2011

Due date for schools to forward financial assistance applications and fees collected from fee-payers

• Financial assistance applications should be made to NZQA by 1 September 2011.
• The due date for payment to NZQA of all fees collected from fee-payers is 16 September 2011.

Schools are requested to set a collection date and process applications with NZQA submission dates in mind.

To cater for any late enrolments or transferring students, schools will have the opportunity to submit late financial assistance applications to NZQA up until 1 December 2011, using the SMS or web entries systems.

Financial Assistance

The purpose of financial assistance is to ensure that fees are not a barrier to participation in qualifications for students in low-to-middle income families. Each year the Government provides limited funding for eligible students enrolled in New Zealand secondary schools who are entering standards on the New Zealand Qualifications Framework (NZQF) and for Scholarship.

International fee-paying students are not eligible for financial assistance.

To be eligible for financial assistance, the applicant (normally the parent or guardian of the candidate) must be the fee-payer and meet at least one of the following criteria:

• be receiving a Work and Income or Study Link benefit  (benefit-based applications)
• have a joint family [1] income that would entitle the applicant to receive a Community Services Card (income-based applications)
• be a fee-payer with two or more children who are candidates (multiple candidate applications [2]), where the total fees to pay would otherwise be more than the $200 multiple candidate maximum.

Financial Assistance fees schedule

Application form

The financial assistance application form and information sheet have been updated and are available on the NZQA website.

Please direct fee-payers to this information and give candidates a copy of the information sheet as well.

Note: Ensure candidates are notified of the school’s due date for fee payment to allow time for financial assistance applications to be processed and sent to NZQA by 1 September 2011. Late applications can be made until 1 December 2011, after which time a late fee will apply.

Paper trail

While NZQA reserves the right to ask applicants to provide evidence in support of their application, there is no requirement for schools to sight this evidence when processing the application.  NZQA may, in subsequent years, ask schools to provide copies of processed application forms. 

Schools submitting entries by electronic file 

School management software allows you to enter financial assistance applications into your system.  When you upload your file to NZQA it will include the applications.  NZQA will automatically approve these applications if all the information is complete. 

The website has the ability to capture applications for financial assistance. 

[1] 'Family' is defined as parents (or legal guardians) and their children.

[2] This applies only if the total fees for a fee-payer would be more than the $200 multiple candidate maximum. Fees for a single candidate are $76.30, except if they are entered for more than three Scholarship subjects or are an international fee-paying student. This means that most fee-payers paying for two candidates assessed against NZQF standards this year will not be eligible for multiple candidate financial assistance.

Enquiries

Please refer any enquiries relating to this circular to your School Relationship Manager.

School Relationship Manager
School Quality Assurance and Liaison
Telephone: 04 463 3000
Fax: 04 463 3113
Email: firstname.lastname@nzqa.govt.nz