Self-review and attestation

Slide 1: Opening slide

Kia ora and thank you for viewing this recording on Code self-review and attestation information for tertiary providers.

This recording will cover information to support your 2024 Code self-review and attestation process. It is geared towards those who will be conducting a self-review under the Code for the first time or for those who would like to refamiliarize themselves on NZQA’s expectations for conducting an effective self-review and submitting your 2024 attestation.

We hope that this recording can provide information to help you better understand the self-review and attestation process and that you feel prepared to undertake a thorough, meaningful self-review of your organisation’s performance under the Code.

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Slide 2: Our objectives

Our objectives in this recording are to:

• Introduce self-review and attestation as they relate to the Code,
• We will Review Code publication requirements and requirements on complaints and critical incidents data reporting and share NZQA’s expectations in meeting these requirements.
• We’ll Review how providers will complete and submit their attestations for 2024, and lastly;
• We’ll Share information to support effective, fit-for-purpose self-review practice.

Slide 3: Self-review, attestation and the Code

We will start off by going over self-review and attestation as they relate to the Code.

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Slide 4: Self-review, attestation and the Code

The Code requires providers to regularly review the quality of their learner wellbeing and safety system using their learner wellbeing and safety strategic goals, plans and practices using:

• Input from diverse learners and stakeholders. This means including learners and stakeholders in some way in your self-review process, and;
• Relevant qualitative and quantitative data (including that from learner complaints). Data should support the findings of your review and any actions you have determined are needed to continuously improve practices. Where no improvement is needed, data you reference should also support this.

Providers must take appropriate action to address any identified deficiencies in learner wellbeing and safety practices. Self-reviews should be well documented.

Providers then attest to NZQA that this review has been completed and any improvements made.

What to know about self-review and attestation?

Self-review is an ongoing process to examine an organisation’s performance. It identifies strengths and areas for improvement so a provider can make actual, worthwhile improvements to practice. It is a core component of quality assurance policies and criteria across all types of education providers.

Self-review is a flexible, scalable, fit for purpose process. What self-review looks like in practice will depend on the provider, its learners, and its overarching education purposes.

The product of your self-review will be a self-review report. A version of this report must be published in a format that is accessible to key stakeholders, including learners, on your website. We will share more on this later in the recording.

Attestation is an annual declaration that providers make to NZQA. Providers attest that a self-review of learner wellbeing and safety practices under the Code has been completed and any identified actions for improvement have been taken.

The attestation is made by completing an online form signed or authorised by the CEO, principal, or chair of the governing board or their delegate.

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Slide 5: Why conduct self-review?

As noted in the previous slide, regular self-review is a requirement under the Code. But aside from that, self-review is a proven basis for effective quality assurance practice. Code self-review has a number of benefits.

• Conducting regular, meaningful self-reviews allows providers to reflect on their performance, and to engage with learners, stakeholders and whanau, to ensure that their learner wellbeing and safety practices are effective, relevant and fit-for-purpose.
• For providers who are still developing or establishing implementation of the Code, self-review can support you with staying on top of this development and identifying and prioritising areas to focus your limited time and resources.
• For providers who have well implemented or mature learner wellbeing and safety practices, self-review can support you with verifying that your practices are effective and fit for purpose and can enable you to focus on more specific parts of the Code that are a priority for your organisation in the future. For example, focusing on growing learner voice or strengthening practices to support the wellbeing of online or distance learners.

Self-review is more than a compliance tick box. It's about you finding out what's working for your learners and staff so you can operate at your best.

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Slide 6: Code reporting and publication requirements

We will now look at the reporting and publication requirements under the Code.

This year NZQA will be verifying that providers are meeting these requirements as part of our monitoring activities.

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Slide 7: Reporting and publication requirements

Outcome 1 of the Code requires providers take a whole-of-provider approach to maintain a strategic, transparent and responsive learner wellbeing and safety system.

To support this, the Code requires providers to make the following information readily available, in accessible formats, to learners, staff and the public:

• Learner wellbeing and safety strategic goals and plans, along with any revisions
• Self-review reports on the quality of learner wellbeing and safety practices
• Complaints and critical incidents data reporting (at an aggregated level)

Where available, this information must be included on websites.

What to know?

• Your published self-review report can be a summary of the findings of your self-review. However, any summary should be just as informative and reflective of what you found in your self-review. You should consult with learners and other stakeholders to determine what would be the best way to present your findings. If you choose to publish a summary of your report, you must retain a copy of your full self-review report should NZQA request it for monitoring purposes.
• Your published complaints and critical incidents data must cover 2023. You can choose to present this data in your self-review report or as a stand-alone item on your website. Either way, it should include your organisation’s definition of a complaint and critical incident and be easily accessible and navigable on your websites for learners and the public.
  • Where possible, reporting on disaggregated data by various learner groups may be helpful, so long as the publication of that data does not jeopardise the privacy of any individuals.
• Providers will be required to provide links to published self-review reports on your attestation form. Before submitting your attestation, you must ensure this information is published.

NZQA will be verifying this information is published as part of our monitoring practice. We will be following up with providers who do not meet these requirements.

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Slide 8: Completing and submitting attestations

Next, let’s talk about completing and submitting your attestation form.

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Slide 9: Submitting your attestation

As noted previously, providers must attest to NZQA that a review of their learner wellbeing and safety goals, plans, and practices have been reviewed and that any improvements identified through the review have been made.

• The due date for 2024 attestations for PTEs and Wānanga is 1 November 2024.
• Before you submit your attestation, you must complete your self-review and upload a version of your self-review report to your website (where available). You will be asked to confirm that these have been done on your attestation form. You should not submit your attestation before these have been completed.
• For 2024, providers will complete and submit a self-review attestation form via an online form through their NZQA provider portal.
• The form takes appx. 10-15 minutes to complete and upload. It is encouraged you review the form before completing it to ensure you have the information being requested available.
• Copies of the form are on the NZQA attestation webpage and under “documents” on the provider portal.

What to know:

• To log onto the provider portal, you or someone in your organisation must have an Education Sector Logon (ESL).
• If you or anyone in your organisation do not have an ESL, or if you forgot your log in details, you must request one with MOE directly. You can do this on the Provider Portal log in page or by emailing service.desk@education.govt.nz.
• You can complete and upload your attestation anytime between 16 September and the deadline, so long as your self-review has been completed and you've met the Code's publication requirements.

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Slide 10: What happens if we don’t self-review or attest?

• Completion of a self-review and submission of a self-review attestation are requirements of the Code.
• Tertiary providers enrolling domestic tertiary learners must complete a self-review and submit an attestation.
• If you are an approved signatory to part 6 of the Code (the part of the Code that outlines requirements for international tertiary learners), you must conduct a self-review of your policies and practices under these outcomes to maintain signatory status and continue to enrol international learners.
  • If you are an approved Code signatory to part 6 of the Code and have not enrolled international learners, but intend to in the future, you still need to conduct a self-review. If you no longer wish to enrol international tertiary learners, you can request to withdraw Code signatory status in writing by emailing code.enquiries@nzqa.govt.nz.
  • Please note that once your Code signatory status has been withdrawn, you will need to reapply to become a Code signatory should you choose to enrol international learners in the future.
• NZQA may follow-up with a provider in a range of ways if there are issues or missing information in your self-review report or process.
• If there are any issues, or if there is a part of the self-review that you are unsure of, please connect with us as soon as you can. We can work with you to clarify requirements or support you in trying to undertake a self-review that is relevant and fit-for-purpose for your organisation.

Slide 11: Effective self-review

Self-review will look different for different types of providers. However, that does not mean ‘anything goes’ in your self-review.

Your organisation must determine the best, most relevant way to take a whole-of-provider approach to conduct a self-review that is fit-for-purpose and suitable to your needs.

Using and following the core components of an effective self-review to guide your self-review practice can support you in doing this.

The core components of an effective self-review are:

• Prepare
• Gather
• Make sense
• Decide

What to know?

• Guiding your self-review using the core components of effective self-review will support you in conducting a fit-for-purpose review.
• We may take a sample of self-review reports as part of our regular monitoring to see that these components are used throughout your review.

We will briefly go over these four components in the next slides. But you can find these in detail in our published self-review guidelines.

Slide 12: Effective self-review—Prepare

The first step in any self-review process should be to prepare.

Preparing for self-review is about planning the process so that you are clear in what you will be looking at, why this will be the focus of your review, how and when you will conduct your review, and who will be involved. 

As you prepare for your self-review, consider the following:

• Know what to review by understanding the Code and its requirements and how these apply to your organisation. For example, there may be a required process under the Code, but given your method of delivery, that requirement might not necessarily apply.
  • Using the Gaps analysis matrix (Tool A in the toolkit) could be a helpful tool for this.
• Know what to review by clarifying the questions you need to answer. Self-review of performance against the Code aims to answer the question: how effectively are we doing what we need to be doing? It is not about telling what you do, but how well you are doing something. And having the evidence to support those findings.
  • Using the key evaluative questions (tool B) template can support you with this. It has guiding questions you may consider to use to help prepare for and inform your review.
• Identify the information you need to source to evidence your Code compliance.
  • You can refer to possible examples of evidence (tool C) for an outline of what evidence you might consider to be helpful in your review. We will speak more about evidence on the next slide.
• Plan each stage of the process.
  • When will you begin your review? Do you know what you need to review (for example, do you just need to review outcomes 1-4? Are you a Code signatory? If so, then you will also need to review outcomes 8-12) Who do you need to engage with and what level of engagement will be needed? What will your internal and public end products be?
  • As you go through your review, particularly if it is your first time, consider how you can weave self-review processes into your everyday practice or using existing QA processes to help you prepare for your next review.

Things to consider:

Here are a few things to keep in mind that could help you in preparing for your self-review.

• Consider using our self-review toolkit to support your self-review. It was great to see many providers using our self-review toolkit to guide their self-review in 2023.
• Remember that you can also amend the toolkit as needed so that it fits your needs and addresses the questions you are seeking to answer through your review. If you do choose to use our self-review toolkit as a template for your published report, it might be helpful to consider writing a cover sheet or executive summary to the review that sets your context, briefly outlines what you found through your review and shares any areas you are prioritising for further improvement or action.
• Engage with learners early on, such as by asking them what is the best way to present your review. Your published self-review report should be something learners and the public can easily navigate and understand. Ask learners what resonates with them, you might be surprised!
  • If you do not have an opportunity to get this feedback from your learners due to the nature of your course delivery (such as only a one-day training course), consider asking key stakeholders what resonates with them? Particularly if you work closely with stakeholders to recruit new learners to take part in your courses or programmes.
• Identify how existing quality assurance processes or activities can support your self-review. For example, if you completed an EER over the past year, the Tertiary Evaluative Indicators and KEQs that guide your self-assessment can be helpful for you to include or reference in your self-review.

Slide 13: Effective self-review—Gather

The next step of your self-review process should be to gather information and evidence.

Gathering evidence from a range of sources to support your self-review is another important component of effective self-review and one that is best to plan early in the process.

Good quality evidence is information that is directly relevant to the questions you are trying to answer through your self-review. This should be quantitative and qualitative data. Some examples of evidence that may be helpful in a Code self-review are:

• Strategic goals, plans and policies that relate to your learner wellbeing and safety practices
• Complaints and critical incidents data
• Student experience or satisfaction survey data or Student focus groups
• Data collected from student management systems, such as attendance/participation data, achievement and completion data, referral data, etc.

Whatever information you determine is relevant and helpful to guide your self-review, ensure that any conclusions or action plans you come to at the end can be supported by the evidence you have used. For example, if you conclude that you have well implemented Code practices and have not identified any improvements necessary, the evidence of your review should support this. Conversely, if at the end of the review you determine and share an action plan with a number of actions, the evidence you share should also support this.

This component of self-review can often be demanding when you are first starting off. Look at how you can capture and record this data more regularly for the next review cycle.

Things to consider:

• Gather a diverse range of evidence, both quantitative and qualitative data– don’t just rely on or reference policies. These are helpful, but these are only part of your story.
• Consider revisiting past EER self-assessment data if you recently participated in one and determine how you could incorporate this into your review.
• Think of ways you can capture and review data for the future.
• Consider using our self-review toolkits to help guide your review. Each tool asks you to consider and list evidence. This can help you identify the evidence you will be looking at, but also to help track relevant data.

Slide 14: Effective self-review—Make sense

Analysing the information you have gathered will help you make determinations about your organisation’s compliance and performance against the Code.

Once your evidence has been gathered, review it closely to see what it is telling you about your current practices. This will help you make sense of your data and contextualise it.

Keep the following in mind to support you in making sense of your evidence:

• How does your evidence answer your key questions?– Using the evidence you have gathered, are you able to answer these questions?
  • A reminder that NZQA’s Tool B of the self-review toolkit can be a helpful resource to support you with asking and answering key evaluative questions to help frame and guide your review.
• Check compliance with required processes– part of you review should be focused on confirming that your organisation satisfies the requirements of the Code. Particularly when these are “prescribed” requirements, such as providers must make strategic goals and plans for supporting the wellbeing and safety of learners readily available to learners, including on their websites.
• Assess the effectiveness of practices and evaluate against Code outcomes– this involves considering the effectiveness of non-prescriptive requirements of the Code in light of its overarching outcomes. For these requirements, identify which aspects of your practice are having a positive impact on learner wellbeing and safety outcomes of the Code and where you might need to make adjustments or improvements.
  • This is more complex than checking compliance against specific, prescriptive Code requirements. This will require you to make evaluative judgments about the effectiveness of your practices using the evidence you have gathered and whether these are meeting the outcomes of the Code.
• If this your organisation’s first self review, or if you are looking at ways to better streamline your self-review practice, you may also consider assessing the effectiveness of your self-review practice through this process. What are the parts of your review that work well and where do you need to focus attention or make improvements for the next review period?

Self-review against non-specific requirements:

• Many Code requirements are non-prescriptive. This is where the Code says you must do ‘something,’ but does not prescribe exactly how you do it. For example, a requirement under Outcome 3 states “providers must have practices for providing learners with information that supports understanding, acceptance, and connection with all learners, and collective responsibility for an inclusive learning environment.” Here, we are told what providers must do, but not the type of information or when or how this information needs to be provided to learners.
• In these cases, you need to consider the intent of the overarching outcome and develop your response accordingly using relevant evidence. Working out what are appropriate ways for your organisation to meet this requirement based on your context, needs and educational outcomes of your learners is an important part of determining how effectively you meet this requirement.

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Slide 15: Effective self-review—Decide

The fourth component of effective self-review is: decide. This involves prioritising and planning your organisation’s next steps once you have been able to review and make sense of the evidence you have collected.

This is where your organisation will consider what action you will take based on the findings of your self-review and what it may have revealed about the effectiveness of your learner wellbeing and safety practices.

From there, consider developing an organisational action plan to protect and enhance any strengths you identified or to address areas for improvement.

And just a brief point to highlight, under the Code, providers must make any amendments to learner wellbeing and safety strategic goals and plans within a reasonable timeframe following your review. This means that for any decisions and actions your organisation decides to take, you must make reasonable attempts to complete them.

Things to consider:

• If you identify actions are needed to address gaps or make improvements, action plans can be a helpful tool when they are clear and relevant to your review.
• When developing your action plans, be clear on timeframes to start or complete actions and key people who will be responsible for these actions.
• Where applicable, consider how any actions or action plans you decide on can complement work being done related to EERs, DAPs and LSPs.

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Slide 16: What is NZQA looking for?

Self-review is a tool for your organisation to make meaning of the overall effectiveness of your learner wellbeing and safety system. This review should be of benefit to you and your organisation. However, the Code does require that providers have a report on the quality of their learner wellbeing and safety practices and that these are made readily available to learners and the public.

Your self-review report should be an accurate reflection of key findings of your self-review. It should reflect what you have learned, through the self-review process, about your learner wellbeing and safety practices under the Code and what evidence you have of their effectiveness.

Reports should present summary-level findings, be comprehensive, that is, they should address all relevant outcomes of the Code, and demonstrate clear use of the core components of effective self-review.

Your Reports should cover:

• How you gathered and analysed info
• Findings and conclusions
• Recommendations and action plans
• Any limitations of the review process you have just gone through.

NZQA may request a copy of your internal, full self-review report for monitoring performance under the Code, highlighting best practice across the sector, and identifying areas for capability building within the sector.

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Slide 17: Self-review resources

We have linked several resources that may be helpful to support you as you conduct your self-review.

You can scan the QR code using the camera on your mobile device or you can click on the link to access the resources.

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Slide 18: Closing Slide

We hope this information on self-review and attestation was helpful. If you have any questions or if you need further support with your self-review and attestation, please email us at code.enquiries@nzqa.govt.nz. A member of our team would be happy to assist you.

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