Endorsements recognise high achievement
When students perform consistently above the Achieved level, their results can be 'endorsed' to reflect that high achievement.
Students can achieve an endorsement at the certificate or individual course level.
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NCEA certificate endorsement
NCEA certificates can be endorsed with Merit or Excellence.
To achieve an Excellence endorsement, a student must earn 50 credits at Excellence. Those credits must be at the level of the certificate or above.
To achieve a Merit endorsement, a student must earn 50 credits at Merit (or Merit and Excellence). Those credits must be at the level of the certificate or above.
Examples
Leilani achieves 51 Level 2 credits at Excellence. Leilani's Level 2 NCEA certificate is endorsed with Excellence.
Mark achieves 50 Level 1 credits at Merit. Mark's Level 1 NCEA certificate is endorsed with Merit.
Endorsement awards show on the student's Record of Achievement.
Certificate endorsement is calculated in January each year when we release external assessment results.
NCEA certificate endorsement and multi-level study
Only the highest-level certificate awarded can be endorsed unless students achieve more than 1 NCEA certificate in a single year.
To gain endorsement of a lower-level certificate, students must achieve additional credits at the level of the lower-level certificate.
Examples
Joseph achieves NCEA Level 1 and Level 2 in one academic year. Both NCEA certificates meet the endorsement credit requirements and can be endorsed.
Hoani is working at Levels 2 and 3 in the current school year. He achieves enough Level 2 Excellence credits to upgrade his Level 2 Merit endorsement from the previous year to Excellence, and achieve his Level 3 certificate endorsement.
Upgrades to certificate endorsements appear automatically at results release in the following January. If not, students can contact us to have their lower-level certificates upgraded.
More information
For details, please refer to the Assessment Rules.
Course endorsement
Course endorsement provides recognition of student achievement in an individual course in a single school year. It can be awarded at Achieved, Merit, and Excellence.
Students can be awarded course endorsement even if they don't achieve an NCEA certificate for that level.
Schools choose which standards make up a course. Any type of standard from any subject can contribute towards course endorsement. They don’t need to be from the same subject.
Achieving course endorsement
Students achieve course endorsement if, in a single school year, they achieve:
- 14 or more credits at Achieved or Merit or Excellence, and
- at least 3 credits from externally assessed standards and 3 credits from internally assessed standards.*
*There are exemptions for Levels 2 and 3 Physical Education, Religious Studies, New Zealand Sign Language, Level 3 Visual Arts, and Te Marautanga o Aotearoa in domains without externally assessed standards.
Credit exceptions in the Assessment Rules
Only 1 course endorsement can be gained from a course each school year. Course endorsement is an award, not a qualification.
More information
Courses with standards at more than one level
Standards are at the same level in most courses. But some courses may have standards at different levels.
Students gain course endorsement at the lowest level of the standards making up the 14 eligible credits.
Examples
Juno needs some Level 1 standards to gain course endorsement. Her course is endorsed at Level 1.
Dylan meets the endorsement requirements for a course with only Level 2 standards. Their course is endorsed at Level 2.
Unusable credits and courses that can't be endorsed
Some courses can't be endorsed because they don't have enough credits that can be used for endorsement.
If a course has insufficient credits for course endorsement to be possible, it may be because:
- the school never intended the course to be endorsed
- the school has not reported all the standards the student is entered in.