Using your National Student Number

The National Student Number (NSN)

The National Student Number (NSN) is a unique number given to every student by the Ministry of Education.

The use of the NSN is governed by the Education and Training Act 2020 (see sections 621, 649 and 661 and Schedule 24). Authorised users are allowed to use NSNs for specific purposes, in order to facilitate the accurate use and transfer, by authorised users, of information relating to individual students.

You may use or disclose your NSN for any purpose. Authorised users are restricted in their use or disclosure as described below.

What you can access after you create an NZQA account with your NSN

Creating an account with your NSN means you can set your login details (user name or email address and password) and access the following information through the MyNZQA learner portal:

your Record of Achievement, which details all the standards (including their credit value and level on the New Zealand Qualifications and Credentials Framework (NZQCF)), course endorsements, vocational pathway awards, achievement in scholarship subjects, University Entrance awards, micro-credentials, and NZQCF qualifications you have been awarded by NZQA, secondary schools and tertiary education organisations
your completed online examinations
your personal details, contact details, and login details. You are able to update your contact details and login details. For updates of your personal details you will need to send NZQA a copy of your official verification of the change in details, such as a birth certificate or passport

By creating an account with your NSN you can also:

access the NCEA Progress Calculator (except during the NCEA and New Zealand Scholarship examination period)
order copies of your Record of Achievement, awards, and other documents issued by NZQA
view your previous orders for these documents.

All standards on the Directory of Assessment and Skill Standards (DASS) and NZQCF qualifications awarded to you by NZQA, or by New Zealand secondary schools or tertiary education organisations are recorded against your NSN on your Record of Achievement and are a permanent record.

How we use your NSN

NZQA uses NSNs:

as part of verifying your identity when you order copies of your Record of Achievement, awards, or other documents issued by NZQA
where you are enrolled in a school, to manage your entry to any assessed standards or to NZ Scholarship subjects and your results, including issuing you with a card with your NSN on it for entry to external examinations
to manage the information that is placed on your Record of Achievement
for the purposes of being an authorised user under Schedule 24 of the Education and Training Act 2020
to award, on your Record of Achievement and in a document you may request, any NCEA qualifications for which you have qualified, along with DASS standards and other NZQCF qualifications and credentials you have achieved.

NZQA may also use and disclose the information on your record of achievement for the purposes for which it has been provided, or with your permission. Unless you have specifically requested that your results are not made available to tertiary institutions, specific purposes for disclosure are:

NZQA releases all Level 2, Level 3 and University Entrance results to all New Zealand universities and some polytechnics to help them process pre-enrolments
for NZ students who apply to an Australian State Tertiary Admission Centre for the purposes of enrolment in an Australian university, NZQA’s background system automatically generates an Australian Tertiary Admissions Rank (ATAR), which the Admission Centre may access.

How NZQA gets your assessment results

Secondary schools and tertiary education organisations are required to report your assessment results for DASS standards to the system on which your Record of Achievement sits to ensure your achievements are maintained on your Record of Achievement. These results are submitted by them online via a secure school or tertiary login.

NZQA does not quality assure the accuracy of these results prior to their upload so cannot take any responsibility for their accuracy on upload. However, if it comes to NZQA’s attention that wrong results have been uploaded, NZQA will take steps to correct the results.

Qualification achievement is not directly reported to the system on which your Record of Achievement sits by secondary schools and tertiary education organisations.

Except for NCEA qualifications, which are awarded by NZQA on your Record of Achievement and in a document you may request, other qualification achievement is added to your Record of Achievement by either NZQA or tertiary education organisations based on Single Data Return (SDR) completions data collected by the Ministry of Education and the Tertiary Education Commission.

These qualification achievements generally get recorded in the year following the achievement.

Authorised users of your NSN

Authorised users of NSNs under Schedule 24 of the Education and Training Act 2020 other than NZQA include:

education providers (early childhood services, schools and tertiary education organisations)
the Ministry of Education
the Tertiary Education Commission
Inland Revenue (from 2025)
the Education Review Office
StudyLink
Statistics New Zealand
any other agency or body declared by education regulations to be an authorised user.

Schedule 24 allows an authorised user to use NSNs for one or more of the following purposes (as set out in, and subject to any requirements, restrictions or conditions, in an Education (National Student Numbers) Notice issued by the Secretary for Education and published in the Gazette):

monitor and ensure student enrolment and attendance
encourage attendance at early childhood services
ensure education providers and students receive appropriate resourcing
ensuring that employers and students receive appropriate resourcing and support for work-based training
statistical purposes
research purposes
ensure that students’ educational records are accurately maintained
establish and maintain student identities to support students’ participation in online learning.

In a practical sense this may mean any of the following uses:

enrolment — schools include NSNs in ENROL, the school student enrolment register, and in their student management system. The NSN is a data element within the student management system record for each student. The NSN is mandatory in the .moe file for each roll return
e-asTTle is an online assessment tool for school students
single data return — tertiary education organisations include NSNs in their data return to the Ministry for statistical and funding purposes
school roll returns
viewing a student’s record of achievement
checking students’ eligibility for Fees Free tertiary education.

Using your NSN for any other purpose

It is an offence for an authorised user to use an NSN for other purposes.

The offence carries a fine of up to $15,000 on conviction.