Cycle 6 academic audits
The sixth cycle of academic audit for New Zealand universities has 10 components. Cycle 6 will:
A. Maintain an internationally referenced, cyclical, peer-review model of external quality assurance.
B. Maintain a high-trust, enabling, relationship between the universities and AQA that recognises and respects universities’ responsibility and accountability for quality as well as AQA’s Terms of Reference and independence.
C. Maintain the scope of academic audit on teaching, learning, support and outcomes for students.
D. Build on and refresh the Cycle 5 academic audit framework (guideline statements) and further emphasise outcomes and the use of evidence.
E. Incorporate a thematic enhancement topic agreed by all universities that will address an issue that is both a strategic priority for universities and of national importance. The enhancement theme topic for Cycle 6 is “Access, outcomes and opportunity for Māori students and for Pasifika students”.
F. Audit universities 7-8 years after their Cycle 5 audit.
G. Include students or recent graduates in audit panels.
H. Amend the audit delivery method so that Panels spend more time together initially and that time spent at the university can be more targeted and require meeting with fewer individuals.
I. Develop audit reports to comment on outcomes and enhancement initiatives, as well as processes.
J. Include a public report on a university’s response to recommendations. A mid-cycle follow-up report on Cycle 5 recommendations will be introduced.
Further information on the development of Cycle 6 and its components can be found here, and further information on the Cycle 6 Enhancement Theme can be found here.
Key dates for Cycle 6 Academic Audit are:
Date | Enhancement theme | Audit | Ongoing Cycle 5 |
April 2017 | Agreement on Cycle 6 | Mid-cycle reports and good practice guides published | |
September 2017 | First meeting of Steering Group |
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September 2017 – end 2019 | Enhancement theme activities | Audit framework refreshed and guides published | |
2020 | Self-reviews of progress as part of self-review activity | Self-reviews commence Auditor training |
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2021 - 2023 | Progress assessed as part of audit | Cycle 6 audits |
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2024 | Review |
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The indicative audit schedule for New Zealand universities is:
Sequence | University | Cycle 5 Report | Midcycle report | Cycle 6 Report |
1 | Auckland | Oct 2014 | Oct 2018 | Oct 2021 |
2 | Victoria | Nov 2014 | Nov 2018 | Nov 2021 |
3 | Massey | Feb 2014 | June 2018 | June 2022 |
4 | Canterbury | Feb 2015 | Feb 2019 | Oct 2022 |
5 | Waikato | Oct 2015 | June 2019 | Dec 2022 |
6 | Lincoln | Dec 2016 | June 2020 | June 2023 |
7 | Otago | Sept 2016 | June 2020 | Oct 2023 |
8 | AUT | April 2016 | Sept 2020 | Dec 2023 |