June 2020
Simon says...

Kia ora koutou

Thank you to all staff involved in the Internal Evaluation and Review (IER). It was a HUGE EFFORT and I have been gratified to see your very positive engagement with this event.

Initial feedback on the IER from our external consultants is very positive. Our focus area teams have generally acquitted themselves very well, and you’ll be pleased to know that the panel were impressed. We will have a full report on the IER soon, but for now, key messages from the panel are:

Unitec has come a very long way since the last EER (External Evaluation and Review) in 2018, putting in a huge amount of work to address the EER recommendations, and this is evident in the improvements we’ve made
Our staff teams are cohesive and demonstrate a strong sense of unity of purpose
There is a clarity of vision and clear cascade of strategy and actions from Manaakitia te Rito, through each team’s takitahi, to individual staff actions, and this is crucial to a strong EER outcome
Our response to COVID-19 has been very strong and this will be an important part of our EER story
We still have work to do in preparation for the October EER in areas like how we use data to support student success, and feedback has been provided to support that work

The big message for Unitec staff is that we are on track and doing the right things. We just need to stay focused on student success and academic quality, and on continuous improvement to our business-as-usual work. Kia kaha folks!

Ngā mihi

Simon Nash
Interim Executive Director - Ako

Debrief on IER and planning next steps

Each focus area will receive written feedback from the IER panel and access to the recordings of its IER panel sessions. Focus area leadership will also attend a feedback session with the panel on 22 June. Following that, I’ll be in touch with each of the focus area teams about establishing a detailed plan through to October.

Preparing for the October EER

NZQA’s most recent advice is that the October EER might be a mix of on-campus and online engagement. This is to be confirmed. For the EER we will also be identifying teams of stakeholders for NZQA to speak with from each focus area – students, graduates, employers and other stakeholders.

In the meantime, we are preparing an institutional ‘Self-Assessment’ document to send to the NZQA by the end of August. This is our own assessment of how well we are doing against the Key Evaluative Questions and Tertiary Education Indicators. It will be sent to NZQA along with all the relevant data and documentation about Unitec and our focus areas.

Power BI is now available for staff

Reminder: Most academic staff and many professional staff now have access to Power BI. This is our in-house source of data on Educational Performance Indicators and is crucial for EER, as it’s our “single source of truth” for data on learner outcomes.

Please contact Te Korowai Kahurangi for training. You can also find out more about Power BI – new dashboards and training - in this Nest post»

I’ve said this numerous times, but it bears repeating: a successful EER is about doing our business-as-usual work well, focusing on academic quality, and the best possible outcomes for our learners. If we can speak confidently about learner progress and outcomes, and about what we (Unitec and individuals) are doing to support it and why, then we will be well-prepared.

Your key guides to that work are your takitahi and action plans that deliver to our Unitec Strategy Manaakitia te Rito. Together, these address the work we need to do for EER.

Following COVID-19 and our campus closures, we are working with Schools to consolidate the gains made in online learning. We all had to rush to move learning and teaching online, just a few months ago. Now we have the opportunity to reflect on how that has gone, look closely at the learner feedback, and consider how to build on the good bits. The Te Puna Ako team will be leading this work for Semester 2 and in 2021 planning.

Academic news

New Power BI dashboard: Non-completion reporting - 19Jun20
Ako Tertiary Teaching Awards nominees – Part 2: Yo Heta-Lensen – 11Jun20
Senior Academic Appointments and Promotions – now open - 03June20
Student NPS survey report – detailed analysis and data – 29May20
Ako Tertiary Teaching Awards nominees – Part 1: Dr Kristie Cameron - 21May20

Need more info?

Email EER 2020 or send your question or suggestion to Simon Nash.

Quick links:

Academic Quality Action Plan – our EER plan

Full Academic Quality Action Plan - Project Plan

Useful links:

Academic Quality Calendar - Tasks, compliance, meetings, semester and workshop dates
Te Korowai Kahurangi - Academic Excellence Nest page

For updates on all the work that’s underway, here is our Academic Quality Action Plan Update. This provides an overview of our approach to academic quality and our response to the 13 NZQA recommendations from the 2018 EER.

Click on the image below to see our Academic Quality Action Plan Update
You can also see the full Academic Quality Action Plan Project Plan

Academic Quality Action Plan (30 May 2020) - Overview of NZQA recommendation progress: