NZQA blocks enrolments at Auckland institute

The Qualifications Authority (NZQA) has blocked enrolments in a masters degree provided by an Auckland tertiary institute focused on international students.

The authority said it issued a compliance notice against ICL Graduate Business School.

The notice ordered the school to stop enrolment of new students into all Master of Management programmes until further notice.

NZQA said it would not comment on the details of its actions while they were underway.

"NZQA monitors programmes and non-university tertiary education organisations as part of its regulatory functions, and may have a number of investigations underway at any one time," it said.

ICL confirmed the NZQA action in a statement to RNZ.

"Current students are not affected and teaching and support for existing students will continue as normal," it said.

"All other ICL programmes, including its Master of Business Informatics, remain unaffected and offers of enrolment for those programmes continue as usual.

"Our focus is on ensuring students continue to receive a high-quality educational experience while we work through this process with NZQA."

Tertiary Education Commission figures showed the organisation had about 200 students last year.

An NZQA evaluation report from 2022 showed nearly all the students it had at that time were foreign and gave the school its highest quality rating.

NZQA blocked enrolments to one other organisation in recent months.

In August it stopped the International Culinary Studio in Christchurch from enrolling students in the New Zealand Diploma in Cookery.

It ordered the studio to "engage a suitable third-party assessment partner (to be approved by NZQA) to moderate all pre and post-assessment materials and learner work".

It also withdrew accreditation from Imperial College of New Zealand Ltd for the New Zealand Diploma in Construction (Level 6).