He huarahi hou – New Tertiary Teaching Excellence Awards criteria

Ako Aotearoa has managed the national Tertiary Teaching Excellence Awards since 2008. Despite clarification of the criteria in 2009, concern remained that the Tertiary Teaching Excellence Awards are not fully inclusive of Māori. Since 2002, only five of over one hundred awardees have been Māori. No applications have been received from Wānanga in the past four years.

After a meeting of the Ako Aotearoa Māori Caucus with representatives of the Tertiary Teaching Excellence Awards committee to discuss the issue, a working group was established to explore the available options. The findings of the working group were reviewed by the TTEA committee and then by the Māori Caucus.

A final paper was endorsed by the Ako Aotearoa Board and then submitted to the Hon Anne Tolley, Minister of Education for consideration. The paper recommended that the number of Tertiary Teaching Excellence Awards be increased to 12 for 2010, that a set of complementary criteria is established for tertiary teachers who exhibit sustained excellence in their contribution to a Māori context of teaching and learning and a minimum of two national awards be available for tertiary teachers who wish to apply under these proposed new criteria. The recommendations were approved by the Minister in November 2009 for the 2010 round.