Announcement of further ITE provision

Education Minister Hekia Parata today announced the five universities the Government will partner with to provide further postgraduate level initial teacher education (ITE) qualifications from 2015.

The Universities of Auckland, AUT, Canterbury, Massey and Victoria have all been selected as providers. 

“Expectations of education systems are changing and teachers entering the profession need to have the knowledge and expertise to work effectively with an increasingly diverse student population,” Ms Parata says.

“The purpose of enabling tertiary providers to offer postgraduate qualifications for entry to the teaching profession is to improve the expertise of graduating teachers and to strengthen their practice.

“Every parent and their children have the right to expect quality teaching, and we want to see every one of them succeed.

“The Government is investing in improving the quality of ITE provision as part of a broader quality teaching agenda, which is focussed on raising the status of the teaching profession and better outcomes for kids.”

The first postgraduate ITE programme commenced in January 2014 with 52 students. The accelerated masters programme, offered by the University of Waikato in partnership with the University of Otago, offers both primary and secondary teaching options. A second postgraduate ITE programme, also at masters level, will be offered by the University of Auckland from July 2014.

These new programmes will provide the opportunity to demonstrate best practice and build the national evidence base about the outcomes for students of particular ITE programmes and levels of qualification.

A formal evaluation will run alongside the delivery of the new programmes from 2014 and will inform decisions about the future of postgraduate ITE provision.