NCEA accepted by local and overseas universities

Australian universities will accept NCEA results once the new qualification for secondary school students replaces University Bursaries. This confirms the international credibility of the qualification.

New Zealand universities have also confirmed that they would accept results from a combination of NCEA level 2 and the transitional Sixth Form Certificate award (click here for more on this). The Minister of Education announced that schools not ready to offer NCEA level 2 in 2003 would be able to offer the transitional version of Sixth Form Certificate. Level 3 of the NCEA will be introduced in 2004, as planned.

University Entrance will be based on NCEA credits and there will also be a new level 4 Scholarships examination linked to NCEA. From this year, fifth formers are working towards level 1 of the NCEA .

NZQA Chief Executive Karen Van Rooyen says the NCEA has already been accepted for entrance to all Australian universities.

"The Qualifications Authority belongs to an organisation called ACTAC, the Australian Conference of Tertiary Admission Centres. In Australia, students receive a tertiary entrance rank. Our Bursaries results can be used to generate this ranking. ACTAC has already agreed that level 3 NCEA results will count towards a student's tertiary entrance rank," says Karen Van Rooyen.

"There are very few formal international agreements about the recognition of school leaver qualifications. The Australian arrangement is obviously crucial for students educated here, or with qualifications from both sides of the Tasman. But Bursaries results are accepted world wide mainly because they are used by New Zealand universities and polytechnics for entrance and selection. There has never been any doubt that NCEA would follow that pattern."

"Anyone still expressing doubts about the international credibility of NCEA has overlooked the fact that this is New Zealand's national qualification for school leavers. New Zealand's education system is internationally respected and admired. We have streams of international delegations coming here to find out about our qualifications systems," says Karen Van Rooyen.