29 MAY

NEW ZEALAND GAZETTE

1605

Derived from the TES is the Statement of Tertiary Education Priorities (STEP).

The role of the STEP is to outline the short-to-medium term priorities that Government expects government agencies and publicly funded tertiary education organisations (public and private tertiary education providers, industry training organisations, government training organisations, and other providers – TEO) to focus on in order to achieve the goals articulated in the TES.

Activities to be publicly funded have to be aligned with the TES and the STEP. Charters and profiles are the means by which TEOs demonstrate their alignment.

The extent of alignment is then assessed via the assessment of strategic relevance criteria within charters and profiles.

The charter is a high level strategic document that provides a broad description of a TEO’s mission and distinctive role within the tertiary system.

Its specific purposes are to:

• identify the nature of a TEO’s contribution to the publicly funded tertiary education system and its contribution to the TES;
• provide the Tertiary Education Commission (TEC) with a basis for the consideration and negotiation of profiles;
• enable the general identification of stakeholders and their needs;
• enable the Crown to give effect to its obligations under the Treaty of Waitangi;
• identify a TEO’s contribution to Pacific people’s education priorities; and
• assure TEC and the public that the TEO is, in principle, a proper recipient of public funding.

Requirement and Criteria for Charters for Tertiary Education Organisations for 2003

All TEOs, other than those exempted via this notice, are required to have a charter approved by the Associate Minister of Education (Tertiary Education) by 1 January 2004 in the form and addressing the criteria given below.

They are also available on the Tertiary Education Commission’s web site at:

www.tec.govt.nz

Guidelines to assist TEOs prepare their draft charters will also be available on this web site from 30 June 2003.

These guidelines will indicate the types of supporting evidential material that a TEO should attach to its charter to demonstrate that it has satisfied the charter assessment criteria.

As well, further background information on the content of charters is available in the Report of the Working Party on Charters and Profiles.

This is available on the Ministry of Education’s web site at:

www.minedu.govt.nz

Charter Content and Assessment Criteria

Charter Content

• Mission.
• Special character.
• Contribution to New Zealand’s identity and economic, social and cultural development.
• Contribution to the tertiary education system as a whole.
• Approach to collaboration and co-operation with other tertiary education providers and organisations.
• Approach to fulfilling Treaty of Waitangi obligations.
• Approach to meeting the needs of Pacific people.
• Approach to meeting the educational needs of learners.
• Approach to ensuring that the organisation develops and supports a staff profile that reflects its mission and special character.
• Governance and management structure and principles.
• Consultation undertaken in preparation of the charter.

Charter Assessment Criteria

• The TEO’s charter has been the product of a robust and comprehensive strategic planning process and, in particular in preparing its charter, the TEO has identified:

  ○ its current and future student profile;
  ○ the medium to long term economic, demographic and other trends likely to impact on the educational needs of its learners and other stakeholders;
  ○ the medium to long term challenges and opportunities facing the TEO, including the risks posed to its capability; and
  ○ how the TEO will respond to its environmental assessment including the capability development required to achieve its strategic outcomes.

• The number and nature of parties that the TEO identifies as its stakeholders are appropriate to the TEO’s portfolio, size, location, mission and type.

• The TEO has raised the awareness of its stakeholders about consultation on its draft charter, including informing its stakeholders of:

  ○ what a charter is and why consultation with stakeholders is beneficial;
  ○ their opportunity to have other factors reflected in the charter;
  ○ what they can expect from being consulted; and
  ○ its consultation process.

• The TEO’s consultation process has adequately provided opportunities for its stakeholders to comment on the draft charter and to seek amendment to it and, if applicable, the TEO has consulted with any person or group that the Minister requires to be consulted.

• Following consultation, the TEO has modified, as appropriate, its charter to reflect the concerns of its stakeholders and has informed them of the outcome of the consultation.

• The process of consultation that the TEO undertook is likely to have contributed to improving the performance of the TEO at the level of strategic planning and oversight.

• The TEO has adequately defined its mission and special character so that it can be used as the basis for its profile development and for ongoing discussions with the Tertiary Education Commission.

• The TEO demonstrates that it has the capability or has development plans in place to give effect to its mission and special character.

• The TEO outlines its core set of strategic outcomes and the strategic targets and/or benchmarks that it will use to indicate success.

• The TEO demonstrates that its mission, special character and strategic outcomes will contribute to the TES and other of the Government’s national strategies.

• The TEO’s charter articulates a strategic positioning that is selective, focused and clearly differentiates it from other comparable TEOs at a local, regional or national level as appropriate, and complements and reinforces other activity in the tertiary system.

• The TEO takes an active approach to collaboration and co-operation with other TEOs where this will increase its contribution to the TES.

• The TEO demonstrates that its strategic outcomes and special character reflect the interests and educational needs of its learners and other communities of interest.