Welcome to the Virtual Education Wiki ~ Open Education Wiki
New Zealand
Partners situated in New Zealand
None.
New Zealand in a nutshell
New Zealand is a Commonwealth country with strong historic links with the UK in general and Scotland in particular.
The population of New Zealand is around 4.1 million according to the CIA Factbook - and a little more on other estimates. This makes it rather similar in size to several European countries, rather larger than Lithuania, slightly smaller than Ireland and rather smaller than Norway. In UK terms, it is slightly smaller than Scotland (5.0 million) and slightly larger than Wales (3.0 million). Thus population-wise as well as politically and economically it is a good match to these countries/regions.
New Zealand education policy
This is centralised. (More details needed.)
New Zealand education system
Higher education
Universities in New Zealand
New Zealand has eight universities. Most used to be constituent colleges of the federal University of New Zealand but this was dissolved in 1961.
(Give a list.)
Polytechnics in New Zealand
There are also 23 polytechnics or institutes of technology in New Zealand. A useful NZQA observes:
- Polytechnics have traditionally specialised in vocational training, but that role has expanded over the last decade to meet the needs of learners and the economy. Many are involved in research activities, particularly in applied and technological areas and other degrees.
(Also say about Maori institutions.)
Higher education reform
The Bologna Process
(Not known. Relevant?)
Administration and finance
Centralised, similar to England.
Quality assurance
NZQA.
New Zealand HEIs in the information society
Towards the information society
Information society strategy
Benchmarking e-learning
New Zealand is the home of the eMM methodology, developed by Dr Stephen Marshall at the University of Wellington. He is a consultant to the UK Higher Education Academy Benchmarking Exercise. After a large amount of government-funded activity (see the 9 MB report) in 2004-2005, where nine institutions were benchmarked (six universities and three polytechnics), recently (up to summer 2007) there does not seem to be an externally funded benchmarking programme oriented to New Zealand tertiary institutions - but this situation may soon change.