Secondary school students have the opportunity to enter for a new level 4 qualification called New Zealand Scholarship.
New Zealand Scholarship will extend our best secondary students and enable top scholars to be identified and acknowledged. It is expected that students will be able to enter one or more scholarship standard assessments as well as their level 3 assessments.
The aim is to assess a student's ability to synthesise and integrate concepts - to apply higher level thinking based on in-school and independent learning.
The content assessed for NZ Scholarship will be the same as that covered for level 3 achievement standards.
It is expected that NZ Scholarship candidates will have completed a full year of study of courses assessed by level 3 achievement standards (or based on level 8 of the New Zealand Curriculum) at a secondary school or wharekura.
Assessment is standards based (but not using achievement or unit standards) and all assessments will be external. Standards have been developed for each Scholarship subject.
For each standard, two levels of achievement can be gained:
In addition, it is expected that achieving a scholarship standard could earn students 24 level 4 credit exemptions towards their NCEA qualification. This will be finalised soon.
'Top' student awards and monetary awards are currently being considered.
The New Zealand Scholarship is registered on the New Zealand Register of Quality Assured Qualifications as an independent level 4 qualification. To complete the qualification students require 72 credits. Each Scholarship standard contributes 24 credits towards the qualification.
The New Zealand Scholarship Certificate will be awarded to students who have achieved the scholarship standards in at least three subjects, within a 3 year period.
The NZ Scholarship Certificate will be awarded by NZQA. Recognition of achievement in single scholarship subjects will occur on a result(s) notice provided by NZQA.