Registration and accreditation

Registration ensures that a certified private or government training establishment is able to provide a sound and stable learning environment. Establishments are required to be registered before they can be accredited.

Accreditation ensures unit standards, achievement standards and courses have received appropriate national endorsement and meet the technical requirements of NZQA and are reviewed periodically.

Note: The NQF and the Register were both replaced on 1 July 2010 by the New Zealand Qualifications Framework (NZQF) and the Directory of Assessment Standards (DAS). All qualifications in New Zealand will be listed on the single unified repository of qualifications called the NZQF. The new terminology will be introduced gradually. In the meantime all current references in this website to the Register and the NQF will mean the NZQF and the DAS.

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Keep up with changes to regulations and other information of interest to the tertiary sector by checking out the eQuate newsletter. You can also sign up to receive an email update when a new eQuate is published.

Benefits of registration

A private training establishment (PTE) does not have to be registered before it can provide education and training. However, registration provides the following benefits:

• A PTE may enrol international students, providing it has NZQA approval for its courses (section 249 of the Education Act) and accreditation to provide the approved programmes (section 250 of the Education Act). Please note that to enrol international students, a PTE also needs to be a signatory to the Code of Practice for the Pastoral Care of International Students.
• A PTE must be registered to apply for programme approval and accreditation, and only a registered PTE can have  consent to assess against standards on the New Zealand Qualifications Framework (NZQF).
• Programme approval and accreditation, and consent to assess, are prerequisites for a PTE's eligibility for government funding, usually but not exclusively through the Tertiary Education Commission (TEC).
• Student loans and allowances are available only to students doing approved and accredited programmes that receive student component funding through TEC.
• Many PTEs choose to be registered because NZQA registration is perceived as a mark of quality.
• Adding diversity to the PTE sector by providing unique characteristics of teaching, goals and objectives that promote quality education.

Limitations/conditions on PTE registration

Section 233B of the Education Act allows NZQA to impose conditions on registration that are specific to a PTE, to ensure the PTE:

• continues to satisfy all statutory requirements
• makes a positive contribution to tertiary education
• provides quality education and training.

Conditions may also be a useful mechanism for ensuring a PTE, which has been registered for a specific educational purpose, continues to meet that purpose.

Breach of one or more conditions may provide grounds for cancellation of registration.

To maintain registration, a PTE must demonstrate that it continues to comply with the statutory policies and criteria for ongoing registration.