International business school loses accreditation after issues identified

The school in central Auckland lost accreditation for three of its business courses. Photo / Google Maps

A hundred international business students at the International College of New Zealand will be forced to start their studies all over again elsewhere - after the school lost accreditation for three of its business courses.

The NZQA identified issues with the quality of the school's assessment processes in three courses that led to students passing when they shouldn't have.

As a result the NZQA has withdrawn the accreditation for ICNZ's National Diploma in Business, Level 5 and Level 6, and its Diploma in Business Management Level 7.

NZQA deputy chief executive quality assurance Dr Grant Klinkum said 95 per cent of Level 5 and 6 and 70 per cent of Level 7 were marked as a pass when they shouldn't have been.

"ICNZ has failed to deliver the quality of education in these programmes that New Zealand's tertiary education sector is rightly well known for.

"As a result we have withdrawn the credits ICNA had awarded to students.

"In most cases students will need to start their programme again with a new provider."

He said the move to remove accreditation was necessary to ensure quality education outcomes.

"We act to ensure the integrity of our qualifications system is maintained."

NZQA was working with the affected students to ensure they are refunded their course fees.

They would also be given the option to sit an English language proficiency test if they wished to enrol at an alternative education provider.

More details are available here: www.nzqa.govt.nz.