Course endorsement provides recognition for students who perform well in individual courses.
Students gain endorsement for a course if, in a single school year, they achieve:
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14 or more credits at Achieved, Merit or Excellence, and
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at least 3 of these credits are from externally assessed standards and 3 credits are from internally assessed standards.*
*There are exemptions for Levels 2 and 3 Physical Education, Religious Studies, New Zealand Sign Language, Level 3 Visual Arts, and Te Marautanga o Aotearoa in domains without externally assessed standards.
Students can gain course endorsement independently of a qualification. For example, a student may gain a Merit endorsement for their Level 2 Mathematics course without achieving the NCEA Level 2 qualification.
More information
On this page
How course endorsement is calculated
Use the following rules to calculate course endorsement.
- A course will be endorsed with Excellence when a student achieves 14 or more credits with Excellence in the course.
- A course will be endorsed with Merit when a student achieves 14 or more credits with Merit or Excellence in the course.
- A course will be endorsed with Achieved when a student achieves 14 or more credits with Achieved or Merit or Excellence in the course.
- These 14 or more credits must include a minimum of 3 internally assessed credits and 3 externally assessed credits.
- Courses that include 14 or more credits in Level 2 or Level 3 Physical Education, Religious Studies, NZ Sign Language, or from Te Marautanga o Aotearoa (TMoA) in domains with no external standards, and Level 3 Visual Arts are exempt from this rule. A course will be endorsed if:
- 14 or more credits are achieved with Achieved, Merit or Excellence from internally assessed Level 2 or Level 3 Physical Education, Religious Studies, NZ Sign Language or TMoA in domains with no external standards
- 14 credits are achieved with Achieved, Merit or Excellence from one of the externally assessed Level 3 Visual Arts standards, or 14 or more credits are achieved with Achieved, Merit or Excellence from internally assessed Level 3 Visual Arts standards.
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The course must be completed within a single school year.
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All exclusions will apply. Where two or more standards assess the same learning outcome, they are mutually exclusive for all NCEA qualifications and endorsements.
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A course endorsement is gained at the level of the lowest-level standard making up the eligible credits.
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Unit standards may contribute to an endorsement.
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The result for any standard can be used in only one course endorsement in the year it is reported.
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Course endorsement does not include Scholarship.
More information
You can find more detail in schedule 1, section 4.2 of the Assessment Rules 2024.
Course endorsement scenarios
Read examples of scenarios for different students and see how the course endorsement rules are applied.
Read scenariosSetting up courses
Schools set up courses in the usual way. The only additional requirement is to associate students’ entries with a course. Whenever the school makes an entry, they need to enter the code for the course they want the standard to belong to.
If the school uses a Student Management System, the vendor will advise how to enter the course code in the system. For schools using NZQA’s Web Entries system, we provide support for the changes.
Courses can be tailored for individual students. They may be entered for different combinations of standards for the same course.
Not all courses need to be endorsable. Not all entries have to be assigned to a course, for example, some Gateway or First Aid standards.
Naming courses
Each course is identified by a course code and a course name.
The course code, chosen by the school, can contain any letters or numbers up to a maximum of 10 characters including spaces. For example, MA1301. The course name is also chosen by the school and can contain any letters or numbers up to a maximum of 60 characters. For example, Mathematics with Calculus.
Course names are published in the school’s curriculum handbooks, in reports to parents, and are included on a student's school results summary. Names should be clear and meaningful and not include proprietary or sponsorship names.
Course names are also displayed in some NZQA systems:
- course endorsement statistics
- the learners portal, including School Entries and Results and the learner's Record of Achievement
- school results summary.
Course endorsements are gained at the level of the lowest-level standards included in the eligible credits. When naming multi-level courses, avoid including the level.
A student's Record of Achievement could read, for example, Level 3 Applied Mathematics Endorsed with Excellence at Level 2, if the 14 eligible credits include 1 or more Level 2 standards.
Reporting course information to NZQA
Schools need to enter a course code against all entries to make them eligible for course endorsement.
Schools should start assigning entries to courses in their first file for the year.
Course codes assigned to existing entries should be finalised by 1 November so schools can make sure they are correct for the 1 December file submission.
Transfers
Students transferring from one school to another during an academic year should not be disadvantaged in terms of course endorsement.
When students withdraw from their old school and are enroled and entered at another school, the new school is responsible for setting up the student’s new courses to accommodate standards already achieved, wherever possible.
Reporting courses for transferring students
If a student is assessed and then moves during the year, the standards they achieved can be added to a course at their new school for the purposes of course endorsement.
The school needs to contact their School Management System vendor for advice on how this information can be sent to NZQA.
Students studying with an external provider
When a student is undertaking a course of study with an external provider, the home school needs to report their results using the external providers code to NZQA.
Schools attach this to a course as they do when reporting results for courses conducted at their school.
For students studying with Te Aho o Te Kura Pounamu (The Correspondence School), schools should use Te Kura's course and course code when reporting, as this helps Te Kura when analysing the results for students within the courses they ran.