Taking NCEA off shore

Tanunporn Visessonchok (left) and Nichapa Buraparatana, students from Thailand now in year 12 at Wellington East Girls' College, with their art portfolios. Both girls hope to return to Thailand to study at university.

NZQA is involved in work to have NCEA recognised overseas, Chief Executive Karen Poutasi told the Education New Zealand conference in August.

"The Qualifications Authority is active in communicating about NCEA, for example, through publications such as the Universities & Colleges Admissions Services Handbook, used by a large number of universities worldwide.

"In addition, New Zealand has agreed a comparability statement for NCEA Level 3 with the National Recognition Information Centre for the United Kingdom."

Dr Poutasi said schools enrolling international students also had a critical role to play in the process.

"They need to be aware of those students' aspirations beyond their time in secondary education in New Zealand. Schools need to direct international students to courses that are academically focussed to ensure their success at university level study in the following year, if that is their objective.

"It may be, for example, that New Zealand University Entrance is well above the minimum entry requirement needed to enrol at a university in their home countries. Or it may be that their target is medicine, and in New Zealand, University Entrance alone is not sufficient to ensure entry to such a restricted and academically challenging university course.

"Schools must be clear what their students want from their New Zealand education, and help them choose courses that enable them to succeed in their goals. And, of course, we also want New Zealand students to thrive in an inter-connected world."

One project for the coming year is a stock-take of the recognition of New Zealand qualifications overseas.

"The purpose is to find out which specific countries need assistance in recognising our qualifications, and the nature of that need. We will then prioritise areas for future work, with advice from agencies such as Education New Zealand."

For more information see: www.educationnz.org.nz