Open Polytechnic
Media Release: immediate
Date: 12 September 2014
Open Polytechnic senior lecturer awarded fellowship
Open Polytechnic senior lecturer in accounting Gwyn Narraway has been awarded a Fellowship by the Chartered Accountants
Australia and New Zealand for her outstanding service to the profession.
The recently amalgamated organisation, which now includes the Institute of Chartered Accountants in Australia and the
New Zealand Institute of Chartered Accountants, brings together 100,000 highly trained professionals.
Gwyn, who has been teaching accounting in New Zealand since 1984 and has been working at the Open Polytechnic since 1989
was recognised for the work she has done on a number of governance and organising committees as well as for the
mentoring assistance she has provided to many.
Fellowships are awarded to individuals who have brought distinction to the profession over and above the normal course
of their job; in addition the Fellowship nomination is through peer recognition and is a confidential process. Members
are not advised that they have been nominated.
“I was humbled and honoured because I never expected to have it conferred on me, “Gwyn said on the acceptance of the
award.
She added that a career in accounting had not been her first choice of career, as she completed a Bachelor of Arts
majoring in History of Art and English, through distance education with the University of South Africa.
“I began to study at my husband’s encouragement for a BA when I was 30; a year after my husband began to study
accounting. He was so good at it, perhaps that is why I didn’t even think of studying accounting,” she said.
However, when she arrived in New Zealand, Gwyn decided to pursue a career in accounting and with her husband’s
encouragement completed a Masters in Accounting through Massey University.
“My husband lectured in Management Accounting and I worked part time in the accounting school and gradually realised
that I should be studying business and accounting papers,” says Gwyn.
“I enjoy accounting because everything fits together nicely. It works.”
The Open Polytechnic offers a Bachelor of Business (Accounting) which is accredited by Chartered Accountants Australia
and New Zealand and CPA Australia. Each year several hundred students study accounting courses ranging from introductory
to advanced level at the Open Polytechnic.
Gwyn is the second Accounting Faculty member to be awarded Fellowship, Jane Needham, head of the School of Business was
awarded a Fellowship in 2008.
Chartered Accountants Australia and New Zealand is a trading name for the Institute of Chartered Accountants in
Australia (ABN 50 084 642 571) and the New Zealand Institute of Chartered Accountants – see charteredaccountantsanz.com
for further information.
About Open Polytechnic
The Open Polytechnic is New Zealand’s specialist provider of open and distance learning, enrolling over 32,000 part-time
students per year. The majority of students are adult learners combining work and study, making the Open Polytechnic one
of New Zealand’s major educators of people in the workforce. Website: www.openpolytechnic.ac.nz
ENDS