The consortium will host the Centre from 1 July 2023 for an initial period of three years, with two potential renewals.

The consortium will receive the NCTTE Fund of $3.556 million per year to deliver a National Centre for Tertiary Teaching Excellence that works in partnership with TEOs to:

• build teaching capability of TEOs and educators
• commission and conduct research, monitoring and evaluation about effective teaching
• provide associated advice to the sector and government agencies
• administer the annual Tertiary Teaching Awards.

The Centre has been around since 2006, hosted by Massey University and known as Ako Aotearoa. It covers the entire tertiary education system, including vocational education and training (VET), across all subsectors and New Zealand Qualifications Framework (NZQF) levels.

Recent changes in New Zealand’s tertiary education sector have altered the landscape substantially. These changes include:

• TEC’s Ōritetanga Learner Success programme
• creation of Te Pūkenga and unified funding system (UFS) funding changes, both resulting from the recent reforms of vocational education (RoVE).

The changes have created opportunities for a new approach to teaching excellence.

“We had good interest among TEOs in hosting the fund which was pleasing,” said TEC Deputy Chief Executive – Delivery, Gillian Dudgeon.

“The consortium we have chosen stood out because it represents key pillars of our tertiary education sector. Between the three TEOs, they cover almost half of all tertiary enrolments in New Zealand.

“We are excited by the breadth of expertise and insight the consortium TEOs will bring to the refresh of the Centre.

“We have high hopes for what it will deliver in terms of encouraging communities of practice, sharing best practice, and generally supporting and incentivising teaching excellence in new and innovative ways,” said Ms Dudgeon.