Preparing for and participating in a consistency review

Guidelines

We've prepared guidelines for consistency reviews that explain:

the responsibilities of tertiary education organisations (TEOs), qualification developers, consistency reviewers and NZQA
the stages of the consistency review process
how decisions are made and reported.

Please use these guidelines when preparing for a consistency review.

Go to the guidelines

Mātauranga Māori qualifications

For the consistency review of Mātauranga Māori qualifications see:

Guidelines for assuring national consistency of graduate outcomes (Mātauranga Māori)

How to prepare for a consistency review

Determine how well your graduates have achieved the graduate profile

You need to determine how you know your graduates have achieved the graduate profile at the level of the qualification.

Examples of evidence include:

employer and graduate surveys aligned to the graduate profile outcomes of the qualification
outcomes and some evidence of internal and external moderation
mapping the programme learning outcomes to graduate profile outcomes
feedback from tutors teaching qualifications at the next level
survey data and analysis of what graduates do after completing the programme (destination data).

On an ongoing basis, collect evidence to demonstrate how your graduates have achieved the graduate profile. Review this evidence before the consistency meeting so you can answer the evaluation question:

How well does the self-assessment and supporting evidence provided by the education organisation demonstrate that its graduates match the graduate outcomes at the appropriate threshold?

Determine a self-rating

With the evidence you collect:

evaluate the quality of the evidence
identify any gaps in the evidence
identify areas of possible improvement and the actions you took.

Use this information to determine a self-rating of sufficient or not sufficient.

Supply NZQA with a self-assessment summary report

Once you have a self-rating, complete and submit a TEO self-assessment summary report.

Include all the relevant information in or with the report:

TEO self-assessment summary report [DOCX, 89 KB]

TEO self-assessment summary report (Te Hono o Te Kahurangi) [DOCX, 278 KB]

Submit the report and any supporting evidence to us at least 10 working days before the review:

consistency@nzqa.govt.nz

Tips for participating in a consistency review

You will have 10 to 15 minutes to present your report and evidence. Use it to show how you came to your self-rating.
If you are joining the meeting online, make sure you have someone at your end who can help you with any technical issues.
Contribute to the discussion on what the threshold is for achieving the graduate outcomes.
Use the group threshold to review your self-rating and identify any gaps or changes you need to make.

If the consistency review finds your organisation not sufficient

If the review found your organisation not sufficient, you need to provide us with further evidence:

If you already have the evidence but did not bring it to the review, email us within 3 days of the review.
If we need more evidence than this, we will provide feedback at the consistency review meeting and will send you an interim report requesting further evidence.
You have up to 6 weeks to submit further evidence to demonstrate that you have addressed any gaps in your initial submission.
If you cannot supply this evidence, your organisation will be listed as not sufficient for the consistency review. We may provide recommendations to help improve the evidence.
During your next consistency review, or other NZQA quality assurance activities, we will follow up on any recommendations.

Information for qualification developers and owners

If you have developed or own a qualification due for a consistency review, we will contact you at the beginning of the year to set a date for the review.

Reviews are held at least 6 months before the qualification review date, as per the New Zealand Qualifications and Credential Framework (NZQCF) listing details.

You will receive an invitation to join the consistency review three months before. If there are multiple meetings, check that a representative can attend all meetings.

You should:

be prepared for questions about the intent of the qualification and level during the meeting.
record any feedback from other education organisations about the qualification purpose or wording to inform the next qualification review

gather evidence to demonstrate that graduate achieved the graduate profile outcomes, and provide a self-assessment summary report.
If there are more than 5 graduates for the reporting range, prepare a presentation for another representative from your organisation to deliver.