It's absolutely essential that New Zealand ICT degrees are regarded internationally as world standard, and the only way this can be accomplished is via independent accreditation by the appropriate professional body.

In most professions the professional body of each country completes an accreditation process on all professional tertiary degree or diploma programmes that are of an internationally acceptable standard.

This is the case for most other professions in New Zealand. For example, the NZICA accredits Accounting degrees and NZIM accredits Management degrees. This accreditation confirms that the course is independently assessed as containing all essential components of the subject matter and is to an international standard.

In the context of an ICT degree this includes a core set of knowledge, plus different optional aspects in Computer Science, Information Systems, Computer Systems Engineering or Software Engineering, or a hybrid combination of these areas.

The NZCS equivalent in almost every other country in the world accredits Computing and ICT degrees, however NZCS has not accredited degrees up until now.

Whilst IPENZ, the NZ Engineering body, accredits a subset of ICT degree programmes from an engineering perspective, currently NZCS, the ICT professional body, does not accredit ICT degrees generally and hence degrees in New Zealand are not accredited from an ICT perspective. This is about to change.

Currently our kindred partners, the professional bodies in Australia, Canada, Japan, Korea, UK, and the USA are in the process of establishing an international equivalency standard for Computer and ICT-related degrees.

This will mean that those degree programmes that are accredited by their country's professional body under the Seoul Accord will be recognised internationally as being of the highest standard.

It is imperative that New Zealand degrees are also recognised on the world stage, hence NZCS is working with our international counterparts to bring internationally recognised ICT degree accreditation to New Zealand under the Seoul Accord.

The NZCS are currently working with the Australian Computer Society (ACS) to form an Australasian Accreditation Board which will accredit ICT degrees in New Zealand, Australia and the Pacific Islands under the Seoul Accord.

You can find out more about the Seoul Accord at www.seoulaccord.org.