New contract great news for Ako Aotearoa

Media Release

Tuesday, 15 October 2013

New contract great news for New Zealand’s National Centre for Tertiary Teaching Excellence

A formal signing ceremony today involving a further five-year funding agreement confirms strong support from the Tertiary Education Commission (TEC) for Ako Aotearoa – The National Centre for Tertiary Teaching Excellence.

Ako Aotearoa’s mandate is to contribute to excellent educational outcomes for learners, through a focus on working in partnership with tertiary education organisations to enhance the effectiveness of teaching and learning.

The formal signing took place at Massey University’s Wellington Campus between TEC’s Chief Executive Tim Fowler, Massey University Assistant Vice-Chancellor (Academic and International) Professor Ingrid Day and Ako Aotearoa Board Chair, Professor Bryan Gould.

Funded through TEC and in operation since 2007, the Centre has committed more than six million dollars to support evidence-based, change-focused research that demonstrates positive change for learners. Massey University led the consortium that in 2006 won the final bid to host the Centre at four locations across New Zealand.

Ako Aotearoa Director, Dr Peter Coolbear, is delighted with the outcome of the recent negotiations.

“Signing this new funding agreement marks a new phase in Ako Aotearoa’s development. A condition of the new agreement is that we look to generate additional income from stakeholders in order to further expand what we do. Our new busines model is designed to secure even better collaboration with the sector.”

“While a critical part of our work continues to be supporting individual educators, we will also look to work much more closely with education organisations in the future. In this way the practice improvement and innovation we support will become more sustainable and benefit more of our tertiary learners.” he adds.

In addition to a diverse funding portfolio, Ako Aotearoa’s core activities include:

· management of the national Tertiary Teaching Excellence Awards

· a strategic Professional Development programme for organisations, educators and support staff

· development of high-quality teaching and learning resources to share with the sector

· commissioned work with tertiary organisations, government groups and learner representatives to support strategic enhancement of tertiary teaching and learning.

For more information about Ako Aotearoa, please go to: www.akoaotearoa.ac.nz
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