Taranaki's largest tertiary education provider has turned around its performance and been given a pass grade on its latest New Zealand Qualifications Authority (NZQA) report card.
Photo: RNZ / Robin Martin
In February last year, NZQA said it had lost confidence in the quality of education provided the Western Institute of Taranaki (WITT) and it was downgraded from a category-one provider to a category three.
At the time, it was the lowest rated public tertiary education provider in the county.
In the latest report released today, NZQA said it was now confident in the quality of education provided at the polytech and its internal quality-assurance controls.
It has upgraded WITT to a category two provider as a result.
As a category-three provider, a polytech may have been required to partner with another institute to ensure courses were run correctly but as a category-two provider it now has more independence.
Chief executive Barbara George said the vote of confidence was a testimony to the hard work put in by everyone at the institute since a previous external evaluation report.
"The report confirmed what we already know about our excellent teachers, that staff are well qualified and experienced, and programmes are planned and delivered to meet the needs of students and other stakeholders."
In the report, NZQA noted WITT had made considerable improvement in its governance, management, educational strategies and processes.
"Strengths across programmes include effective industry partnerships in some programmes, improved learner achievement rates - including for priority learners - and the collection of meaningful data."
Course completion rates rose from 72 to 80 percent while qualification rates remained at 55 percent - an improvement on 2015-2016, where achievement rate had trended down.
Completion rates for Māori over the 2015-2017 period rose by 15 percent, for Pasifika students by 30 percent, and 9 percent for non-Māori.
The report said there were, however, still areas where WITT required improvement.
"Examples include developing closer consultation and partnerships in some programmes, increased analysis of data for improvements to learning and outcomes, and the collation and analysis of graduate outcomes."
Ms George said the executive was aware of the NZQA's recommendations, and in most cases, plans were already underway to strengthen outcomes.