Tikanga Ako - the regulations that guide Te Wānanga o Aotearoa (TWoA) kaimahi about how they safely interact with tauira - is up for review.

Lead Quality and Audit Rodney Young said the Tikanga Ako review is about ensuring our academic regulations are current.
 
Tikanga Ako relates to the protocols that occur within teaching and learning at TWoA. 

They are designed to ensure that our kaimahi are supported in doing what is right and in a manner that is correct.

Rodney said the Tikanga Ako review would target a small number of key stakeholders including Ratonga and Akoranga, but kaimahi throughout the motu are invited to contribute ideas.

“Tikanga Ako is our source of guidance in how we deal with any issues. It gives our people awareness,” said Rodney.

“You may have a situation where you think “do I give them another go at assessment?” or “should I enrol this tauira?”

“Our kaimahi then go back to Tikanga Ako, and they review what they’re doing with Tikanga Ako so it keeps us safe.”

Rodney said the likes of Ratonga rely on Tikanga Ako to ensure we follow correct process during enrolment.

Akoranga also rely on Tikanga Ako extensively when approving programmes before sending correspondence to the New Zealand Qualifications Authority (NZQA). 

“They (NZQA) want to know how we manage certain things, so Akoranga refers to Tikanga Ako in their accreditation applications so Tikanga Ako is very important in keeping us safe and most importantly to uphold Ngā Uara.”

Rodney said the review would be broken into parts and the different regulations within Tikanga Ako would be evaluated monthly throughout the year.

The first regulations up for review are assessment, re-assessment and re-submission.

“We are dividing up the different regulations and every month two or three will be reviewed,” he said.

“The goal is these things will be reviewed by a date usually at the end of the following month and a process will be in place to contact key stakeholders and get feedback from them.”

“If we find there is a need for significant changes then we will arrange a formal hui and arrange a process but if people involved think no changes are needed then that’s fine.”

All Tikanga Ako are approved by Te Rautiaki Mātauranga, which oversees the academic operations of TWoA.  There is a current review on the policy framework and any changes will be communicated to all kaimahi.

The existing Tikanga Ako can be found here.

The schedule for the Tikanga Ako review is as follows;