September 2021 Code News for wānanga

Covid-19 lockdown

Thank you for the work you are doing to ensure the safety and wellbeing of students across Aotearoa as we move through Alert Levels.

The number one priority during this time continues to be the welfare of students and staff. We encourage you to contact our team with any concerns or questions relating to your international and domestic pastoral code obligations.

What does the new Code mean for tertiary providers and wānanga?

For tertiary providers and wānanga, the key changes are:

• A requirement to take a whole-of-provider/wānanga approach to learner wellbeing and student voice
• New and strengthened requirements for:
  • inclusive learning environments
  • staff training and support (including staff in student accommodation)
  • better protections for learners making complaints and resolving disputes
  • better consistency within and across providers/ wānanga when responding to emergencies.
• Combined requirements for tertiary international and domestic learners, meaning some new requirements for international providers/wānanga.

Further to the new Code, a new disputes resolution scheme for domestic tertiary learners will come into effect from 1 January 2022. This scheme will sit alongside the scheme already in place for international students. Further updates from MoE to follow.

What do you need to do?

NZQA’s Code and Quality Assurance Māori teams are working closely together and with sector leaders to confirm how the new Code can be appropriately quality assured in providers/wānanga working within the Te Hono o Te Kahurangi (THoTK) framework.

We will share further guidance with THoTK providers/wānanga in due course.

However, the very first step in getting ready for the new Code is similar for all providers and wānanga.

This involves a simple review of existing practice against the new Code, to identify where practice may need to be updated, improved and/or made appropriate for the new Code.

It is also an opportunity to identify and note any areas of the new Code that may need clarification in terms of what they mean in a Māori provider/wānanga context.

Between now and 1 January 2022, we need all tertiary providers and wānanga to:

• become familiar with the new Code and its requirements.
• undertake a gap analysis between the current Code(s) and new Code.
• create an action plan to address any gaps or questions.
• complete a survey in December to inform our capability building in 2022.

We will not be formally monitoring provider or wānanga gap analysis initially; however we will expect to see that this work has been done once we start formally monitoring the Code from July 2022.

As noted above, we’ll be working with sector leaders working within the THoTK framework to identify an appropriate approach to Code monitoring for THoTK providers/wānanga. We’ll keep you updated on this mahi.

There are no further formal requirements for the existing codes, though between now and 31 December 2021, these Codes will still be reviewed in EERs, and through student accommodation monitoring (where relevant).

International Code signatories

We understand the impacts of Covid-19 and border closures on international Code signatories.

We also understand that these impacts might have meant losing key staff members. We would like to ensure that information and guidance on the Code is easy to understand and implement. If you have any concerns on the new Code, or what to do to meet your obligations, please feel free to contact us.