Entrance to overseas tertiary courses

Learn more about the university entrance requirements in Australia and Britain, and how to find information about entrance in other countries

Country-specific university entrance requirements

Internationally, universities require foreign students applying for admission to have achieved the university entrance standard set by their own country. The same principle generally applies to other tertiary providers overseas.

Find out how other countries recognise NCEA and if you can use it for entry to university:

Applying to study overseas with NCEA

Australia

New Zealand has traditionally had a formal agreement for mutual recognition of university entrance with Australia only. NCEA is accepted by the Australasian Conference of Tertiary Admission Centres (ACTAC), which ensures that all states or territories in Australia use a common approach for tertiary entrance ranking.

More information

Applying to study at Australian universities

Britain

In Britain, the Universities and Colleges Admissions Service (UCAS) publishes an annual publication called International Qualifications for Entry to Higher Education (in addition to a publication on domestic qualifications).

The UCAS publication is a reference guide used by UK tertiary providers when they are evaluating school leaving qualifications of students applying for admission to UK tertiary institutions. The UCAS publication is also used more widely internationally as an authoritative guide. NCEA is listed in the annual UCAS publication.

In addition, the Ecctis (previously the National Academic Recognition Information Centre), also consulted by tertiary providers, recognides that students with University Entrance and the NCEA Level 3 certificate, including some merits and excellences in subjects to be studied at higher education institutions, are considered comparable to those with the overall GCE (General Certificate of Education) Advanced standard.

Universities and Colleges Admissions Service (external link) - ucas.com

Ecctis (external link) - ecctis.com

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