Chief Executive's Foreword

Educating the World

The business of teaching overseas students has become a significant industry in New Zealand and we have a deserved reputation as a provider of high quality education in an egalitarian and safe environment.

New Zealand has developed a nationally coherent and consistent system of quality assured qualifications. We are sought out, not only as a destination for learning by overseas students, but also by overseas delegations wanting to learn about the implementation of the National Qualifications Framework and our quality assurance systems. These visits allow us to share information with colleagues from overseas and to build better relationships with them. You can read about some of these delegations here.

This issue of QA News looks at some of the news in the international student arena. The sheer growth of the business has meant that we have had to look at better protection for the education of foreign students and at their expectations of what they will get from studying here. We must also ensure that our domestic students are not negatively impacted on and that they also gain from international exchanges and greater connectedness with the world.

We are currently working with China, one of our largest customers, to facilitate its desire to provide better advice to its students wishing to study here. I explain more about this process here.

A benchmarking project for our secondary curriculum is underway in collaboration with South Australia, Scotland and England. The main aim of the project is to establish the equivalence or comparability of the NCEA at the senior school level with relevant qualifications in other countries, particularly countries with which New Zealand achievement is often compared. Read about this here.

It has been a busy year for NZQA with the introduction of NCEA level 2 and preparation for introducing level 3 and the New Zealand Scholarship next year. We have significantly improved the flow of information between NZQA and schools with the introduction of the Schools Liaison team this year. This team of 14 has been on the road for a year now, talking with and assisting schools with the implementation and running of NCEA.

As I write this we are in the middle of exams with over 123,000 candidates sitting external exams. We have put in place more internet services for learners this year. Secondary students can now access their entries and internally assessed results as well as their Record of Learning on the internet. We plan to continue to improve our on-line services to learners by giving them the ability to arrange their Records of Learning according to the skills or results that they want to highlight. They will be able to do this on-line via the NZQA website.

We also launched our new KiwiQuals website this year. This is a new tool that enables learners and other interested parties to find and compare every quality assured qualification available in New Zealand. It has been a great success so far and I am sure that learners, employers and careers advisors are finding it an invaluable resource.

NZQA ran the second Tertiary Teaching Excellence Awards and our best tertiary teachers were presented with their awards by the Associate Minister of Education (Tertiary Education) Steve Maharey at an awards ceremony in June. A booklet profiling the winners was published in September. We are currently seeking nominations for the 2004 awards. There have been the Top Scholar Awards and another successful Top Art tour run this year.

I look forward to another progressive year in 2004 and wish you all the best for the holiday season and New Year.

Regards

Karen Van Rooyen