When you complain to NZQA, we will let you know that we’ve received it and then assess your complaint to see if NZQA can investigate it.
Talk to your education provider first
Before coming to NZQA you should try to resolve the issue with the education provider itself. Check what their complaints process is.
NZQA may decide not to investigate unless you’ve tried to do this first.
Tips for resolving a complaint with your education provider
If you cannot sort your problem with the education provider, you might be able to make a complaint to NZQA.
On this page
What to put in your complaint to NZQA
Your complaint should be about a specific process or practice that your education provider did that was unfair or inequitable.
Tell us what the provider needs to improve to comply with NZQA regulations.
NZQA is not a dispute resolution service and generally cannot help you get a refund or a specific solution.
If you are looking for a specific solution, we recommend you seek legal advice or contact Study Complaints:
Study Complaints (for international and tertiary students) (external link)
Tips for making your complaint
Make your complaint as soon as you can. It is hard for us to look at a complaint if it happened more than a year ago.
Tell us:
- what process you went through and want to complaint about
- why you think it is unfair
- what the education provider/school has said about your complaint.
Show us:
- Documents about your complaint e.g. letter and emails to/from your provider
- Anything else you think we need to see about your complaint, e.g. advertising material, your enrolment contract.
Don’t give us extra information that is not about your complaint, as we cannot use that.
Tell us what you would like to happen to fix your complaint.
Investigating your complaint
What we do before investigating
Before investigating, we work out if we:
- can resolve it by contacting the provider directly and giving them a suggestion
- need to consult with or send your complaint to another relevant organisation.
Other organisations that may be able to help you
Our investigation process
If NZQA can investigate your complaint, we will write to you and your education provider to say that we have started a formal investigation of your complaint.
1. We contact the education provider
When we write to your education provider, we will send them a copy of the documents you sent to us and ask them to respond to the complaint issues.
The education provider will then send us their version of events, along with their evidence to support this.
2. We review all of the information
When we receive it, NZQA weighs up all the information and evidence, and forms its initial findings on your complaint.
3. We send out our initial findings
We send the initial findings to you and the education provider to see if we’ve missed anything important.
NZQA will carefully review any further information that we receive and may reconsider our findings before we finalise them.
4. We send out our final findings
When NZQA gives you our final findings on your complaint, this may include requirements or recommendations that we’ve made to your education provider to ensure they improve their processes and practices for future students.
How long the investigation will take
NZQA aims to complete its complaints within 65 working days, but complex cases may take more time.
After the investigation is finished
Once NZQA has sent out its final findings, the complaint investigation is closed.
If we have made requirements or recommendations to your education provider, we will follow up with them directly to ensure those actions are completed.
Breaches of the Code of Pastoral Care
If NZQA’s complaint investigation has identified a breach of the Code, you can make a claim to a student dispute resolution scheme for any loss or harm suffered as a result of that breach.
Find out more about the Code of Pastoral Care
How we use this information
NZQA may publish information about the outcome of a complaint, or include your complaint in any reporting we do:
- at an aggregate level, or
- at a disaggregated level by student groups (e.g. age, ethnicity, international status).