Commercial use of NZQA material

Specific requirements for commercial use of NCEA or Scholarship external assessment material

Applicants wanting to commercially use NCEA or Scholarship external assessment material (including examination papers) in their publications must apply to NZQA for permission. NZQA owns the copyright in NCEA and Scholarship external assessment material that it has developed and may consent to a commercial applicant using this material in their publication(s) on payment of a fee.

The fee for commercial use of each individual external assessment for an NCEA or Scholarship standard covers the use (in whole or in part) of all components of the assessment including resource material and the assessment schedule (marking scheme). An additional charge will be made for any costs associated with processing the application. Before any application is submitted see the fees for commercial use of NCEA and Scholarship examination material:

Go to the fees page

Application process

Applicants should complete the application form:

Commercial Use of NZQA Examination Material Application Form [PDF, 938 KB]

Identify the subject, level, year, and achievement standards for which material is required, and attach a sample of the context in which the NZQA material is to be published to clearly show how the material, in whole or in part, will be used. The completed application form should be lodged with the Team Leader - Editors, External Assessment.

Send your application form to the Team Leader, Editors

Applications may be made at any time, but permission to use the most recent year's external assessment material will not be granted before it becomes publicly available (December of the current year for exam papers and resources; March of the following year for assessment schedules). Approval for use will not be granted until the appropriate fee has been paid.

Section 49 of the Copyright Act 1994 permits the New Zealand Qualifications Authority to use third-party copyright content for the purposes of an examination without infringing copyright. However, this does not apply to subsequent use of such content, and therefore a commercial applicant wishing to reproduce external assessment material incorporating third-party copyright content is responsible for obtaining the consent of the third party to reproduce it, and NZQA will not supply the assessment material for publication until the applicant has obtained this consent. (The applicant will be advised if any of the requested assessment material contains third-party copyright content.)

Conditions of use

Written acknowledgement must be given to NZQA in the publication in which the external assessment material is used (in a printed publication, this should appear on or near the publication's imprint page). The acknowledgement must state that:

• the New Zealand Qualifications Authority owns the copyright in the external assessment material reproduced and has consented to the reproduction of that material
• (if applicable) any component of the external assessment material in which the copyright belongs to a third party remains the property of that third party, and has been used in the publication with their permission.

Within the publication, external assessment material developed by NZQA must be clearly distinguished from material produced by or for the author(s) or publisher(s).

One copy of each publication including the NZQA external assessment material must be lodged with the NZQA library. The publication(s) should be sent to the Team Leader Editors, External Assessment, NZQA. (This condition may be waived at the discretion of NZQA.)