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Quality Assurers Meet
Associate Minister of Education Steve Maharey with representatives of inter-institutional quality assurance bodies at their initial formal meeting in April. The Minister said the joint meeting would be important in providing a direction for collaboration and co-operation within a differentiated sector.
Qualifications Authority Chief Executive Norman Kingsbury said the Authority valued the links with and advice from all bodies with respect to the Authority's overall responsibilities in quality assurance and in developing a broad framework of qualifications. The group is due to meet again in September. Norman Kingsbury said issues before future meetings would include its terms of reference, future activities, and a report back from a working group looking at student complaints.
The Qualifications Authority is involved in the meetings in its two distinct quality assurance roles: it has an overarching responsibility under the legislation, carried out within the Chief Executive's Office, and also an operational role carried out by NZQA's Quality Assurance Services (QAS). QAS quality assures courses and qualifications in wananga, industry and the private and government sector, as well as all degrees outside universities. Other quality assurance functions in polytechnics and colleges of education are delegated by the Authority to the New Zealand Polytechnic Programmes Committee (NZPPC) and the Colleges of Education Accreditation Committee (CEAC). Quality assurance in university programmes is the responsibility of the New Zealand Vice Chancellors' Committee (NZVCC).
(Correction: In one section of an item in the March issue of QA News, the New Zealand Polytechnic Programmes Committee was omitted from the list of groups represented at the meeting of inter-institutional bodies. The editor apologises for this omission.)
In the photograph above (left to right): Front: Norman Kingsbury, Hon Steve Maharey, Turoa Royal (Te Tauihu of Nga Wananga), Liz Seymour (NZQA), Elizabeth Eppel (Ministry of Education), Ian Johns (MOE). Rear: David Lythe (NZQA), Lindsay Taiaroa (NZVCC), Jim Doyle (APNZ), Neil Cooper (CEAC), Graeme Oldershaw (ACENZ, CEAC), David Woodhouse (Academic Audit Unit), Roger Field (NZVCC/CUAP), Wilf Malcolm (AAU), Donna Bell (APNZ), Peter Scanlan (NZPPC), John Scott (NZQA, QAS), Ron Burgess (NZPPC).
Whatever became of the broadened framework?
In February the Authority published a discussion document, Registering Qualifications in New Zealand, outlining a mechanism for establishing a Register of qualifications - in effect, this would be a broadened framework of qualifications. The Register would bring together all qualifications currently approved by the Qualifications Authority and the NZVCC and would embrace all approved tertiary and industry qualifications. All national qualifications (registered on the National Qualifications Framework) and all provider qualifications (in polytechnics, universities, etc) would be included. The National Qualifications Framework would be a subset of the Register. To be included on the Register, qualifications would be described in terms of levels, credits, learning outcomes and detailed fields. Agreed nomenclature is also suggested. The intent of the Register is to enable all users to see the relationship between qualifications, to facilitate credit transfer and to
assist in international benchmarking. Submissions closed on 1 August.
Copyright © 2000 New Zealand Qualifications Authority
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