IT-related Degree Accreditation Workshop

NZCS would like to welcome academics and others interested in ICT-related tertiary education to attend this workshop to discuss New Zealand's plans for international accreditation of ICT-related degree programmes in New Zealand.

Presenting this workshop will be:

• Professor Doug Grant from Swinburne University of Technology in Melbourne, Australia. Doug is Chair of the ACS Professional Standards Committee and has significant experience conducting the ACS Degree Accreditation Programme as well as undergoing accreditation in his own departments.
• Professor Michael Johnson, Director of The Macquarie-DET ICT Innovations Centre and also heavily involved in ICT-related Degree Accreditation in Australia, both having been the process himself a number of times and also as part of Accreditation Panels of other institutions.
• Paul Matthews, Chief Executive of NZCS and spearheading the implementation of Degree Accreditation in New Zealand.

The intention of this workshop is to discuss in detail the Seoul Accord-aligned Degree Accreditation programme being proposed for New Zealand and address any issues or questions raised by the tertiary community here.

Note that in this context we're using the term "ICT-related" to mean Computer Science, Information Systems/Science, Software Engineering, Applied Computing, ICT, and related programmes.

What is Degree Accreditation?

Most countries educationally comparable to New Zealand have independent professional degree accreditation programmes in place for ICT, where the ICT professional body in each country (ie the local equivalent of NZCS) is a vehicle for independent accreditation of degree programmes to international standards.

This is not unique to ICT; Both in New Zealand and abroad the same applies in Engineering, Accounting, Architecture and most other professions.

A number of countries have recently come together to cross-recognise ICT-related degrees programmes that meet international practice standards. This cross recognition agreement is called the Seoul Accord and under this agreement ICT-related degrees from Australia, Canada, USA, UK, Korea, Hong Kong, Chinese Taipei and Japan are accredited by the national ICT professional body and mutually cross-recognised in each of the other signatory countries.

And as it currently stands, New Zealand isn't a party to this agreement. The consequent, of course, is that kiwi ICT-related degrees aren't recognised in those countries under the Seoul Accord. The impact of New Zealand's lack of participation hasn't been felt widely yet, but the implications are becoming more significant for New Zealand degrees and graduates.

Hence NZCS is proposing to implement ICT degree accreditation in New Zealand in partnership with the tertiary sector, with the intention of providing New Zealand tertiary institutions with the same opportunity to accredit and hence cross-recognise degrees with other Seoul Accord signatory countries.

Why now?

Globally ICT is growing up into a true profession and with that comes international standards and obligations. For professionals, ITCP is becoming more and more important. And if we want the great reputation of New Zealand ICT degrees to be maintained we need to be at the Seoul Accord table.

As well as this, anecdotally the impact on international student numbers in ICT is also being affected, with many choosing accredited courses in Australia rather than coming to New Zealand.

So in short, it's highly likely that in time, New Zealand graduates' degrees will only be globally recognised if they're from a Seoul Accord-accredited programme, whether we like it or not. And as New Zealand's ICT professional body, NZCS has an obligation to put this programme in place.

The approach

NZCS have been working on this project for some time, investigating all options and working with the tertiary sector to taylor the proposed model to the New Zealand environment.

The proposed approach is to partner with the Australian Computer Society to form an Australia/New Zealand ICT Accreditations Board, overseeing accreditation activities on both sides of the Tasman. This will be made up of academics and industry representatives selected from both Australia and New Zealand.

The benefit to this approach is that it allows us to leverage the successful Australian programme, which has been operating for over 20 years and is Seoul Accord compliant. ACS currently accredits every University in Australia, as well as the TAFEs that have started providing bachelor-level degrees.

NZCS and ACS have worked closely to ensure that the model and approach is suitable for both countries. The intention is that the implementation and operation of each country's Degree Accreditation will be run through the respective body in that country, with the Accreditations Board governing the process and managing the Accreditation process documentation.

The full Accreditations documentation is available in this ZIP archive. Those looking into this should also consider the NZCS Professional Knowledge Curriculum which is likely to be integrated.

You can find out a little more about this initiative from this recent update.

Who should attend?

As well as the Heads of School or Department from tertiary institutions, we're hoping that a good contingent of academics from each of the relevant departments/schools in each significant tertiary institution throughout New Zealand will attend.

This is aimed at those within the academic community or that have a direct involvement with ICT-related tertiary education.

Whether you agree with the concept of Degree Accreditation or not, we strongly encourage you to attend to ensure you're engaged with the process, your concerns or context is being raised, and the presenters have the opportunity to talk through any issues you might have.

When is it?

We would have liked to offer these workshops in all main centres, however unfortunately we've had to restrict them to Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch. We STRONGLY encourage those from other regions to attend one of these - they are not just for the local institutions.

These are being held on the following dates:

• Christchurch: Tuesday 13th December 2011, 1pm-5pm, CPIT
• Auckland: Wednesday 14th December 2011, 1pm-5pm, Auckland University
• Wellington: Thursday 15th December 2011, 1pm-5pm, Victoria University of Wellington

Please contact us if travel is a major issue. We may be able to arrange some for of video conferencing for one, although we strongly recommend being there in person.

What happens next?

Following the workshops a further formal Consultation process will be conducted, calling for further submissions on the proposed plan. This is to ensure there are no other outstanding matters that could prevent the successful roll-out of the programme. This will run through until mid February 2012.

The consultation will determine whether further significant work is necessary. If not, we'll announce the first institutions to work through the accreditation process with Accreditation visits occurring as soon as these institutions are able to collate the necessary information, intended to be Q2 2012.

Registration

These workshops are being held free thanks to support from NZCS and ACS. However registration is essential to secure your place.

Places are limited. In the event of filling the available space, preference will be given to staff of tertiary institutions.

Please either register below, or send details of the names, email addresses and institution of those attending to events@nzcs.org.nz

A special thanks to Victoria University of Wellington for providing the venue for this workshop.