- Home
- Qualifications and standards
- NCEA
- Māori and Pasifika
-
Providers and partners
- About education organisations
- NZQA's quality assurance system for tertiary education organisations
- Guidelines and forms
- Consistency of graduate outcomes
- Approval, accreditation and registration
- Monitoring and Assessment
- Self-assessment
- External evaluation and review
- Assessment and moderation of standards
- Submitting results and awarding qualifications and micro-credentials
- Tertiary and International Learners Code of Practice
- Offshore use of qualifications and programmes
- Reform of vocational education
- International Education planning
- international
- About us
Consent and Moderation Requirements (CMRs)
Each unit standard and achievement standard listed on the Directory of Assessment Standards (DAS) has an associated Consent and Moderation Requirements (CMR) document, which outlines the specific requirements for consent to assess against standards and national external moderation. CMRs are developed by standard-setting bodies (SSBs).
Consent to assess against standards on the DAS
Education organisations need to be granted consent to assess against standards to confirm that they are capable of assessing against those standards. This involves preparing and submitting an application to NZQA.
Secondary schools are automatically granted a base scope of consent to assess against standards. The Base Scope of Assessment for Schools lists the domains that are included.
Education organisations prepare any required evidence to submit with their application according to the relevant CMR requirements. To clarify any industry or sector specific requirements, organisations seeking consent should contact the relevant SSB. In some cases an industry specialist may visit the organisation's site to determine the suitability of the organisation.
National external moderation
National external moderation provides assurance that assessment decisions are consistent with the national standard across all organisations that have consent to assess against standards. Where a transitional ITO is responsible for the standards, the national external moderation system is run by the transitional ITO. NZQA runs other national external moderation systems, including moderation for general education subjects (mostly offered in schools).
Assessment against DAS standards is moderated through the SSB’s national external moderation systems. The Moderation Requirements section of a CMR sets out the national external moderation requirements for the standards listed in the scope of the CMR. It is the responsibility of organisations with consent to assess to participate in the standard setting body's national external moderation system.
Education organisations can find out the detail of the national external moderation requirements by referring to the relevant CMR.
Accessing CMRs
Standard setting bodies (SSBs) may develop and maintain more than one CMR.
Use Search Directory of Assessment Standards to locate the required CMR.
Contents of a CMR
Each CMR covers:
- the industry or sector-specific requirements for granting consent to assess for organisations to deliver programmes and/or assess against standards in the scope of the CMR
- the moderation process that organisations with consent to assess will need to engage in.
The CMR comprises a Requirements for Consent to Assess section and a Moderation Requirements section.
Requirements for Consent to Assess
The purpose of the Requirements for Consent to Assess section is to:
- set out requirements that need to be met by organisations seeking consent to assess against standards
- allow industry or sectors to establish specific requirements, where necessary, within the consent to assess criteria for specific standards
- advise organisations of specific requirements for consent to assess
- advise organisations of SSB involvement in the consent to assess process
- highlight industry or sector-specific requirements for consent to assess to the quality assurance body (QAB)
- clarify the specific requirements of that industry or sector for personnel involved in quality assuring consent to assess applications
- ensure consistency between consent to assess panels.
To clarify any industry or sector-specific requirements, organisations seeking consent to assess should contact the relevant SSB.
Applications for Consent to Assess must comply with Consent to Assess against Standards on the Directory of Assessment Standards Rules 2021.
Moderation requirements
The Moderation Requirements section of a CMR sets out the national external moderation requirements for the unit standards listed in the scope of the CMR.
It is the responsibility of organisations with consent to assess and SSBs to ensure that assessors participate in the SSB's national external moderation system. SSBs may seek to verify this.
How CMRs are developed
An SSB, such as a Transitional Industry Training Organisation, National Qualifications Services or Māori Qualifications Services, prepares a CMR for an industry or sector.
Approvals and Accreditation is the NZQA business unit that coordinates the quality assurance process for CMRs. For information on the Approvals and Accreditation quality assurance process, see Applying for approval of CMRs.