Exemption from student fee protection arrangements

There is now no provision for new exemptions from having student fee protection mechanism in place that complies with NZQA policy. The following applies only to existing arrangements.

A PTE is eligible for exemption from the Student Fee Protection Policy if it meets one of the following criteria:

• the course is of five days, or a maximum of 50 hours duration or less
• total student fees amount to $500 or less
• there are no course fees, e.g. courses are completely funded by Government; or
• the course is completely funded by third parties, e.g. a business or businesses.

A written exemption ensures that all parties know that an exemption has been granted. For exemptions on a student basis, a PTE also needs to keep records of who is exempt.

Course hours cover all directed teaching, including distance teaching. Consecutive enrolments in modules are treated as an enrolment in a single course.