We recommend that a tertiary education organisation’s (TEO’s) admission and enrolment process for Student Achievement Component (SAC) level 3 and above on the New Zealand Qualifications Framework (NZQF) includes the steps below: 

Note: We expect the TEO to inform each student during the enrolment process about all planned learning activities leading to the award of the qualification the student has enrolled in. ‘Planned learning activities’ includes self-directed learning activities the TEO expects the student to engage with/participate in. It does not include self-directed activities the student initiates.

See all of the SAC level 3 and above funding conditions for requirements when enrolling students in SAC level 3 and above funded provision. This includes but is not limited to the following funding conditions.

• Condition: Confirmed student enrolments
• Condition: Withdrawal of enrolments
• Condition: Use of SAC+ Fund Funding for valid domestic enrolments
• Condition: Funding

Admission

We expect you to publish admission information before the start of each programme. This information should include: 

• admission requirements
• tuition fees and other course costs
• criteria and process for selecting students for entry into restricted entry courses (if relevant)
• criteria and process for assessing and recognising a student’s prior learning
• criteria and process for cross-crediting courses across multiple qualifications
• documents that a student must submit (for example, a student's academic transcript or record from another TEO)
• the enrolment process
• minimum attendance and code of conduct requirements
• withdrawal requirements and process, including refunds
• student support services available, and
• Compulsory Student Services Fee information in accordance with Condition: Compulsory Student Services Fee (CSSF).

There are legislative requirements for both tertiary education institutions (TEIs) and private training establishments (PTEs) to provide information about fees.

See the following conditions for fees requirements.

• Condition: Annual Maximum Fee Movement
• Condition: Compulsory student services fee (CSSF)
• Condition: No inducing enrolment (under Condition: Use of SAC3+ Fund Funding for valid domestic enrolments).

Fees when an enrolment changes

For information about fees when an enrolment changes, see Enrolment changes under Enrolment below.

An enrolment is not a valid domestic enrolment if the student has been induced to enrol. See Condition: No inducing enrolment.

We recommend that you contact us to discuss this before offering items or activities to students for enrolling with you.

Enrolment restrictions

In accordance with section 255(4) of the Education and Training Act 2020, you may restrict the number of eligible students who can enrol in a programme. We recommend that you determine and publish the maximum number of students who can enrol in a particular programme leading to the award of a qualification or course each year, and your criteria and processes for selecting students into the restricted entry programmes or courses.

You may:

• set minimum entry standards for qualifications or courses
• require a student to achieve satisfactory academic progress
• require a student to complete another qualification first
• set admission limits (for example, capped numbers of high cost SAC level 3 and above provision such as dentistry and aviation) – see the Eligibility page (Programme eligibility) for more information.

You must not, however, restrict enrolment in a programme for which SAC level 3 and above funding is provided on the basis of private advantage (for example, restricting enrolment to the TEO's employees only). See Condition: No private advantage.

Enrolment form

An enrolment form should collect all of the information that a TEO is required to report in the Single Data Return (SDR). See Condition: Enrolment records for valid domestic enrolments and Condition: Single Data Return (SDR).

To ensure an enrolment form collects all of the necessary information, you need to be familiar with the SDR Manual to identify the information that must be collected. You may also use the Ministry of Education's generic enrolment form.

We recommend that you publish your enrolment form.

Enrolment application

To enrol in a programme leading to award of a qualification, the student needs to apply to the TEO by:

• completing and submitting the TEO’s enrolment form, and
• providing evidence to enable the TEO to:
  • verify the student's identity, and
  • determine the student’s eligibility (see SAC level 3 and above funding conditions, including Condition: Use of SAC3+ Fund Funding for valid domestic enrolments).

Enrolment changes

If a student's enrolment changes for any reason, you must update your records to reflect the changes. We recommend you send updated enrolment information to the student.

Fees refund when the enrolment changes

You must make clear to the student at enrolment the period during which they may change their enrolment(s) or withdraw from a course or programme with a fees refund (less any administration charge).

See Fees refund information in Withdrawals below, Condition: Confirmed student enrolments, and Confirmed student enrolments below.

You must process fees refunds in a timely manner for the student.

If you refund all or some of a student’s fees, you must refund the student in the manner in which the original fee was paid. This could be to StudyLink, if the student paid using the Student Loan Scheme, or directly to the student.

Where the student is entitled to a refund, you may not hold the refund as a credit (for example, for the student enrolling/re-enrolling at your organisation in the future) unless you can demonstrate that the student has understood their refund entitlement and agreed to waive their entitlement.

Full fees refund

If a TEO decides to refund all of a student’s fees after the fees refund period has passed (e.g. on compassionate grounds) they cease to be a confirmed student enrolment and should not be reported in the SDR.

Part fees refund 

If a TEO decides to refund some of a student’s fees after the fees refund period has passed (e.g. on compassionate grounds) they remain a confirmed student enrolment for the purposes of reporting to us, and must be included in the SDR.

No fees refund 

A student who has withdrawn from their course (formally or informally) or been expelled after the fees refund period has passed, and who has not received a fees refund, remains a confirmed student enrolment for the purposes of reporting to us, and must be included in the SDR.

Scholarship

The above also apply when you decide to pay for the student's fees through a scholarship.

Tuition fees invoicing

We expect you to provide the student with an invoice that specifies the courses in which they have been accepted, and itemises the fees and course costs for each course the student is enrolled in.

The student then pays the fees specified in the invoice or arranges for them to be paid.

Tuition fees receipting

After you have received payment (or confirmation that payment has been arranged), we expect you to issue a receipt to the student.

To comply with reporting requirements under Schedule 18, clause 13 of the Education and Training Act 2020, a TEO must verify the student’s identity when the student enrols for the first time. See Condition: Verification of student identity.

If the identity of the student is verified, the TEO can then check if the student is eligible to be a valid domestic enrolment, or is eligible to enrol as an international student (for example, by having a student visa).

Note: The TEO must sight either an original or a certified copy of the original.

• Originals must be in hard copy format.
• Certified copies can be either in hard copy format or digital format (photograph or scan).

In either instance the TEO remains responsible for verifying the student’s identity.

Certified copies

A certified copy is a photocopy or scanned copy that has been endorsed as a true copy of the original. To be certified, the document must:

(a) be certified by an official of the issuing authority or a person authorised by law in New Zealand to certify documents, such as a Justice of the Peace, a lawyer, or a court official (Court Registrar or Deputy Registrar), and

(b) have the official's signature on each page, with the name and title of the official shown clearly below his or her signature.

When additional identity verification is required

We expect TEOs to have clear identity verification policies that tell staff and students when additional evidence of identity is required (for example, police checks or referee checks for teaching degrees). We recommend reading the Department of Internal Affairs' Evidence of Identity Standard.

Tertiary education organisations (TEOs) must ensure that students are eligible to be enrolled in SAC level 3 and above funded programmes. See Condition: Verification of student eligibility.

For audit purposes, the TEO must keep copies of the Record of Achievement (ROA) that was used at first enrolment to determine eligibility.

Recognition of learning / prior achievement refers to previous study or experience (prior achievement) relevant to the programme the student is about to enrol in or is currently studying. It enables a student to proceed with his or her study without repeating aspects of the qualification previously studied, or re-learning skills the student has already achieved through past work or other experience.

Recognition of prior learning (RPL), and credit recognition and transfer (CRT), are forms of recognising learning / prior achievement. The New Zealand Qualifications Authority (NZQA) provides information and guidelines on recognition of learning / prior achievement for tertiary education organisations (TEOs).

It is the TEO’s responsibility to recognise each student’s prior learning and adjust the courses in his or her programme. A TEO cannot claim SAC level 3 and above funding or student fees for RPL or CRT, or for delivering tuition where the student already has prior learning (i.e. skills and/or knowledge).

See Condition: Recognised prior learning.

This means the TEO is responsible for:

• undertaking a preliminary evaluation of the learner and identifying whether they are likely to have the knowledge, skills, and attributes that can contribute to the graduate outcomes of the qualification
• seeking evidence of prior academic achievement, including using an NZQA Record of Achievement, when each student enrols, and
• for level 3 qualifications, carrying out a National Certificate of Educational Achievement (NCEA) qualification check with NZQA to see each student's full NCEA achievement and paid and unpaid credits.

If you have any questions about the process, please contact the Qualifications Data and Data Analysis team at NZQA on 0800 697 296.

See Recognition of learning / prior achievement on the Funding and payments page, under Funding calculation.

Students wanting to defer their start date

You may agree to defer a student’s enrolment start date, but you should have a policy for the circumstances under which a student may defer their start date.

Note: No SAC level 3 and above funding can be claimed unless the student has started their study and the 10% or one month date for accessing funding has passed. See Condition: Claiming SAC3+ Fund Funding.

Students wanting to accelerate their study (undertake additional learning)

You should not enrol a student in an additional course or qualification unless the student elects to exceed the annual equivalent full-time student (EFTS) value of the qualification to accelerate their programme of study or training. For example, a student may choose to complete a three year qualification in two and a half years by undertaking a higher than usual course load each year.

In that instance we expect the additional learning hours to be matched by an appropriate number of additional teaching hours.

Example: a qualification that is 34 weeks each year in length is generally 1.0 EFTS in value each year, which equates to 0.03 EFTS each week.

0.03 EFTS per week x 34 weeks = 1.0 EFTS.

If a student studies for 52 weeks in a year, the maximum amount of EFTS that we will fund for the student is 1.56 EFTS.

0.03 EFTS per week x 52 weeks = 1.56 EFTS.

You must ensure that such a student understands the workload that will be required of them to achieve their course and qualification completions. See Condition: Exceeding the total annual EFTS value of the qualification.

A student may be concurrently enrolled at more than one tertiary education organisation (TEO) and therefore undertaking a high study load. While this is not prohibited, take care to identify these students and ensure that they are supported to successfully complete their courses and qualifications. 

Enrolment of international students

If a student is an international student, the tertiary education organisation (TEO) should confirm that the student is eligible to attend the TEO as an international student. You can do this by either:

• sighting the student's passport and conducting a VisaView check (see VisaView below), or
• sighting the student's passport with:
  • a current student visa label or visa approval notification (see Visa approval notification below) (or in the case of a pathway student visa, the letter from Immigration New Zealand specifying the TEOs and courses the student is eligible to attend)
  • a current work visa label or visa approval notification with conditions that allow the student to study (this relates to an international student who has a practical component in their study programme)
  • a current work or visitor visa label or visa approval notification if the student is enrolling in a course of less than 12 weeks. Please see Immigration New Zealand's website for more information about work and visitor’s visas.

Condition: Enrolment records for valid domestic enrolments details the enrolment records to be kept for a SAC level 3 and above funded student. We recommend that a TEO keep these records for its international students as well, in order to comply with the record-keeping requirements for TEIs in section 309 of the Education and Training Act 2020, and for PTEs in section 361 of the Act.

See International students on our Eligibility page.

Visa approval notification

Immigration New Zealand (part of the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment) is moving towards the use of label-less visas. The visa is recorded electronically in Immigration New Zealand’s system, so some students will not have a visa label in their passport. Instead, a label-less visa approval notification will have been sent by email or by letter to the student.

Students with label-less visas may therefore present their visa approval notification as evidence of their visa when they enrol with a TEO, and the TEO may choose to use VisaView to verify this.

VisaView

The TEO can use Immigration New Zealand's VisaView online enquiry system to check whether a student who is not a New Zealand citizen can study with them in New Zealand.

Please see the “VisaView Guide for Education Providers" (PDF, 641 KB) for more information. You can also contact Immigration New Zealand if you have questions.

To comply with Condition: Enrolment records for valid domestic enrolments, we recommend that you download and retain the VisaView record.

A “withdrawal” is when a student ceases to participate in a course, programme or training scheme (regardless of whether they have been refunded any fees), either:

• by providing notice to the TEO that they wish to withdraw from participation, study and/or enrolment, or
• as a result of non-attendance or non-participation for any reason.

Disengaged students who have not formally withdrawn

A student may have disengaged from the programme or training scheme but not have formally withdrawn. For example, they may not have attended a face-to-face course or not logged in for on-line learning.

Determine at the earliest opportunity if a disengaged student is withdrawing from a course. If the enrolment continues to be reported and is unsuccessful, it will be counted as a course non-completion for the calculation of Educational Performance Indicators (EPIs).

Setting a withdrawal date for a withdrawn student

Tertiary education organisations (TEOs) need to apply a “withdrawal date” to any enrolment in the Single Data Return (SDR) that meets the criteria above.

A TEO will not be able to receive funding for an enrolment with a withdrawal date that occurs before 10% or one month of the course has passed completed (rounded up to the nearest whole day), whichever is earlier.

See the following conditions for withdrawals requirements.

• Condition: Claiming SAC3+ Fund Funding
• Condition: Withdrawal of enrolments 

Advising StudyLink and other parties of student withdrawal

See the following conditions.

• Condition: Reporting Withdrawals to the Ministry of Social Development (StudyLink)
• Condition: Other obligations to report Withdrawals

When a student in receipt of a loan and/or allowance withdraws from a programme, the date of withdrawal that the TEO must notify to StudyLink is the date TEO determined that the student had ceased to participate (e.g. for non-attendance or non-participation). For example:

Withdrawal date and student fees refund period

See Condition: Confirmed student enrolments. This only applies to programmes/courses where fees are compulsory.

TEOs need to apply a fees refund period. If a student withdraws from a course or programme within this period, they must receive a refund of fees (or waiver of fee payment) and course costs (minus any administration fees). The refund period requirements are different for private training establishments (PTEs) and tertiary education institutions (TEIs).

See Condition: Withdrawal of enrolments.

Also see Enrolment changes information in Enrolment above and Confirmed student enrolments below.

Condition: Confirmed Student Enrolments applies to programme, course and training scheme enrolments where fees apply, including compulsory student services fee (CSSF). It ensures that we gain a wider understanding of tertiary education organisation (TEO) enrolments by including enrolments where the TEO receives fees from a student and does not refund the fees after a withdrawal.

All SAC level 3 and above, and SAC level 3 and 4 (competitive), funded TEOs must report all confirmed student enrolments with a programme start date on or after 1 January 2017.

Course enrolments in 2018

For all course enrolments starting on or between 1 January 2017 and 31 December 2018, we require TEOs to report enrolments where the TEO retains some or all of the student’s fee(s) if the student withdrew after the fees refund period, but before the enrolment became eligible for TEC funding.

Programme enrolments in 2018

For all course enrolments starting on or after 1 January 2018, we require TEOs to report enrolments where the TEO retains some or all of the student’s fee(s) if the student withdrew after the fees refund period if:

• the student withdrew after the fees refund period, but before the enrolment became eligible for TEC funding, and
• the student withdrew after the fees refund period, and after the enrolment became eligible for TEC funding, but the TEO is not claiming funding.

Further information

The requirement does not apply to:

• fees free enrolments (course, training scheme and/or programme) or
• enrolments where the student has:
  • not paid the fees by the due date/date committed to, and/or
  • received a full refund of fees (course, training scheme and/or programme) less any applicable administration fee.

The confirmed student enrolments must be reported in the SDR under source of funding (SoF) 31 (if the student had not withdrawn, the enrolments would be reported under SoF 01 for SAC level 3 and above, or SoF 32 for SAC level 3 and 4 competitive).

The diagram below outlines the application of the reporting requirement.

Scholarship

If, after a student has paid the fees, the TEO decides to pay for the student's fees through a scholarship, the student remains a confirmed student enrolment.

Educational Performance Indicators (EPIs)

Confirmed student enrolment data (SoF 31) is included in EPI calculations (from 2017).

Course withdrawal, programme withdrawal, and fees refunds

Course withdrawal, programme withdrawal, and fees refund practice can determine whether or not an enrolment must be reported as a confirmed student enrolment under SoF 31. Importantly, these practices can differ for private training establishments (PTEs) and tertiary education institutions (TEIs).

Regardless, for 2019 on, if:

• a course enrolment passes the 10%/one month threshold for claiming TEC funding, and
• the TEO does not claim funding for the course enrolment, and
• the TEO retains some or all fees for the course enrolment,

the course enrolment must be reported under SoF 31. For example, in Diagram 1 below this would mean that courses 1 and 2 would be reported under SoF 31 if fees are retained but no TEC funding is claimed.

Withdrawing by programme and retaining fees

For some TEOs, mainly PTEs, when a student withdraws from study the TEO may withdraw them from the whole programme (or qualification) and retain all of the fees for that programme. This is done even though the start date may not have been reached for all course enrolments making up the programme.

TEOs that withdraw students by programme, and retain fees for courses that the TEO does not claim TEC funding for, have to report these course confirmed student enrolments under SoF 31.

Withdrawing by course and retaining fees

For other TEOs, when a student withdraws from study the TEO withdraws the student from courses within the programme that the student did not start or participate in for 10% or one month (whichever is earlier). The TEO retains fees only for the courses where the enrolment became a valid course enrolment reported under SoF 01 or SoF 32. TEOs that withdraw students by course and refund their fees in full do not have to report those enrolments as, at the point of fees refund or waiver, they cease to be confirmed student enrolments.

Examples

Diagram 1

The tuition fees required to be refunded to the student will differ depending on whether the TEO withdraws students by course or by programme.

• If the TEO withdraws students by course, the student will receive a refund of the tuition fees for courses 3, 4 and 5. This is because the fees refund period for courses 3, 4 and 5 has not passed. Refer to Withdrawals above
• If the TEO withdraws students by programme, no refund of tuition fees is required as the fees refund period for the programme has passed. If no refund (excluding any administration charges) is given to the student:
  • enrolments for courses 1 and 2 will need to be reported under SoF 31 if no TEC funding is claimed (if funding is claimed, courses 1 and 2 will be reported under SoF 01 or 32)
  • enrolments for courses 3, 4 and 5 will be need to be reported under SoF 31.
• Alternatively, if the TEO fully refunds the student for courses 3, 4 and 5 (less any administration charges), these courses do not need to be reported.

Diagram 2

The TEO is not required to refund fees regardless of whether students are withdrawn by course or by programme. This is because the fees refund period has passed for both programme and courses. These courses would not need to be reported under SoF 31 and would instead be reported under the relevant SoF for a valid domestic enrolment (e.g. SoF 01 or SoF 32), as per the current practice.

However, if the TEO retains fees and does not claim TEC funding, from 1 January 2019 the TEO must report the course enrolments under SoF 31.

Diagram 3

Diagram 3 shows an enrolment where there are five courses that all have the same start and end date. In this instance the fees refund period is the same for all of the courses as well as the programme. As the withdrawal date has been reached for both the programme and the course, the TEO is not required to refund the student any fees regardless of whether the TEO withdraws students by course or programme. For courses where the student participated for at least 10% or one month (whichever is earlier), the enrolment is reported under SoF 01 or 32.

However, if the TEO retains fees and does not claim TEC funding, from 1 January 2019 the TEO must report the course enrolments under SoF 31.

A student is only a confirmed student enrolment when they have paid or committed to pay fees and the fees refund period has passed.

If the student does not pay the fees as they committed, then they cease to be a confirmed student enrolment or a valid domestic enrolment. SAC funding must not be claimed for them.

See Condition: Refunding fees for Withdrawals.

If the student has arranged to pay the fees through the Student Loan Scheme, you should:

• get the student's agreement to authorise the payment from their loan account
• send a “Verification of Study” to the Ministry of Social Development (MSD) (StudyLink)
• receive confirmation that StudyLink has accepted the student's loan application, and
• inform the student in writing of arrangements concerning payment.

When requesting tuition fees from StudyLink ensure that the fees payment requested is for the:

• student
• reported programme(s), and
• study period(s) listed in the ‘Verification of Study’ (VoS) response.

Recognition of prior learning

Tuition fees requested from StudyLink, and EFTS the learner is enrolled in, must reflect the ‘course of study’ that the student is required to pay for and study after both recognition of prior learning (RPL) and previously awarded credits have been recognised and removed from the student’s programme of study or training (i.e. not the tuition fee and EFTS for the whole programme).

Note: Payment of full tuition fees may not be requested from StudyLink and subsequently refunded to the student after RPL.

Aviation

If you have been allocated funding for aviation provision that includes an in-flight training component (pilot training), you must supply StudyLink with the correct student enrolment information through the Verification of Study (VoS) system.

You must also ensure that:

• annual student loan borrowing for course fees by any pilot training student studying full-time does not exceed:
• $35,000 per EFTS, if the student is not eligible for fees-free tertiary education, and
• $35,000 per EFTS, less up to the maximum payment of $12,000 paid by us on behalf of the student for fees, and
• where a pilot training student is studying part-time, their annual student loan borrowing for course fees does not exceed the proportion of $35,000 represented by the EFTS course load that the student is enrolled in. For example, if the student is studying a 0.4 EFTS course load in the year, their student loan borrowing limit for the year is $14,000.