NZQA delivers a paper of comparisons

NZQA presented a paper contrasting the different approaches of Quality Assurance for tertiary institutions in Australia, the United Kingdom and New Zealand, at the Australian International Education Conference, held in Sydney in October.

The paper contrasted systems in New Zealand, Australia and the United Kingdom, comparing the Australian Universities Quality Agency (AUQA), the Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education (QAA) and the New Zealand Vice Chancellor's Committee (NZVCC), as well as NZQA.

Authors, NZQA policy analysts Janine McCardle and Julianne Patrick, said they explained where NZQA sat within the New Zealand framework while profiling other quality assurance systems. The conference was seen as a good opportunity to showcase what NZQA does to the other 33 countries attending, and to further the goal of ensuring that New Zealand qualifications are accepted as credible and robust, nationally and internationally.

"It was nice to see how similar the three jurisdictions were in their approach to quality assurance and then how in alignment they were to international best practice. Foreign delegates proved to be very interested in how Kiwis did things. New Zealand is very special in how there is a consistent approach to quality assurance for the whole tertiary sector because we are basically talking about one set of gazetted criteria.

"The audience was interested in the new focus on quality assurance (as part of the Tertiary Reforms) and they wanted to know about the practicalities for audits and evaluations from a provider's perspective," Janine says.

The focus on institutional ownership of quality as integral to doing business was discussed, as was the importance of an open, evaluative approach to self-assessment.

Aware of the lack of common language when working in an international environment, papers like these can help people get their head around foreign educational systems, she says.

"The biggest challenge in working in an international environment is getting a familiarity and understanding of other systems."

Read the presentation.