Annual fee questions and answers
This section answers these questions:
|
- What is the annual fee?
- What is the annual fee based on?
- Do I have to pay the annual fee?
- What documents will I need?
- Subcontracting arrangements - who pays the FTE?
- Calculating the FTE student numbers
- Do I use credit value or learning hours to calculate the FTE component? - non-funded providers only
- What happens if I disagree with the annual fee estimate and/or invoice?
- What happens if I don't return the Annual Return Fee Form? - non-funded providers only
- I can't find an answer to my question! Contact details for assisstance
What is the annual fee?
The annual fee covers work undertaken by the Quality Assurance Division (formerly Approvals, Accreditation and Audit) of NZQA that benefits the whole sector but cannot be charged at our hourly rate to individual providers. It includes work associated with ongoing advice and guidance, ongoing monitoring of providers between audit cycles, database maintenance and development of operational policy and procedures. Other work includes risk management, complaints work, legal work, publications and work with other agencies and the NZQA Board.
What is the annual fee based on?
NZQA charges providers an annual fee consisting of a base fee of $775 plus an additional $10 for every full-time equivalent (FTE) student enrolled in the previous 12-month period from 1 January to 31 December. The annual fee is based on actual student numbers, not 'funded' student numbers.
What does full-time equivalent (FTE) mean?
'Full-time equivalent' refers to the student workload that would normally be carried out if the student were enrolled full time for one academic year. FTE does not refer to the actual number of students enrolled in any one year, because some courses last for less than a full year. Therefore, one student enrolled in a full-time course for one year would be counted as 1 FTE. A student enrolled for a six-month course would be counted as 0.5 FTE.
FTE should not be confused with 'equivalent full-time students' (EFTS), which is a measure used by the Tertiary Education Commission (TEC) to calculate funding for providers that are eligible for student component funding.
For more information on student component funding and/or targeted funding for Training Opportunities (TOP) and Youth Training courses visit the TEC website.
Do I have to pay the annual fee?
The following organisations must pay the annual fee:
- private training establishments that are registered with NZQA on 1 January of each year
- government training establishments
- wānanga
- Unitec New Zealand
- recognised course owners.
The following organisations do not pay the annual fee:
- industry training organisations
- Adult and Community Education (ACE) providers who solely deliver ACE programmes.
We are cancelling - or intend to cancel - our registration as a private training establishment (PTE)
The annual fee applies to all private training establishments that are registered with NZQA on 1 January. It does not apply if you had notified NZQA of your intention to cancel your registration. If you request to have your registration cancelled we will credit the unused portion of your annual fee from the date we received the notification.
We are registered but didn't deliver education and/or training last year
The annual fee applies to all registered private training establishments regardless of whether any education and/or training is being delivered. If you did not have students the previous year you are required to pay the base fee of $775, and if you are a non-funded provider you should enter NIL in boxes A - D on the Annual Fee Return Form (AFO1).
We have an application for registration in progress. Do we pay the annual fee once we are registered?
Newly registered providers are invoiced one month after registration has been notified. The invoiced amount will be $300 plus $40 (GST incl) for each complete month in the remainder of the calendar year. The $300 is a base fee to cover the extra cost of establishing the database and operational systems for newly registered providers. These providers are not required to furnish an annual fee return for the year in which they were first registered.
We don't 'enrol' students - we deliver under sub-contract to another tertiary organisation that receives funding from TEC. Who pays the FTE component?
The FTE student component is paid by the organisation that receives the funding and therefore 'owns' that student.
Example:
Provider A receives funding for 15 FTE students from TEC
Provider A delivers 10 FTEs itself and subcontracts the delivery of five FTEs to Provider B
Provider B receives funding for 20 FTEs and delivers the training itself
Provider A's annual fee will be $925:
$775 (base fee) + $150 ($10 x 15 FTEs for all enrolled students)
Provider B's annual fee will be $975:
$775 (base fee) + $200 ($10 x 20 FTEs it delivers for its own enrolled students).
We don't receive any government funding - do we pay the FTE student component?
The base fee and FTE student component apply to all registered private training establishments, government training establishments, wānanga, Unitec New Zealand and course owners. This is regardless of whether any funding was received or the source of funding.
We are an industry training organisation (ITO) - do we pay the annual fee?
Industry training organisations do not currently pay an annual fee to NZQA.
We are a registered private training establishment that delivers Adult and Community Education (ACE) courses as well as other types of courses - what do we pay?
You pay the base fee of $775 plus $10 per FTE student for your non-ACE courses. You will not pay the FTE student component for courses you deliver that attract ACE funding.
We are an ACE provider that delivers only Adult and Community Education courses and are not registered with NZQA - do we pay the annual fee?
You are not required to pay an annual fee.
We are a recognised course owner and do not deliver courses - what do we pay?
You will pay the base fee of $775 only. You should enter NIL in boxes A - C on the Annual Fee Return Form.
We are a government training establishment and we only run courses to train our own staff - what do we pay?
Government training establishments pay an agreed standard rate. For further information contact NZQA and ask for the contact person for annual fees in the Quality Assurance Division.
Calculating FTE student numbers
Where does NZQA get my FTE student numbers from?
For non-funded providers the information comes from you (on the Annual Fee Return Form) in the first instance. We verify the information supplied by matching data with information from other available sources.
For funded providers we use funding data from TEC for the previous calendar year. For providers receiving student component funding the figures are taken from the December Single Data Return (SDR). It is important to note that the annual fee is based on student numbers not 'funded' student numbers. For targeted funded providers figures are sourced from fortnightly payments of student throughput from TEC for the previous year and converted to FTE student numbers.What sort of education and/or training is relevant to the FTE student component?
All education and/or training that you provide to learners (including corporate training) must be included in your calculations for the FTE student component of the annual fee.
Education and/or training that must be included in your calculations encompasses:
- education and/or training attracting TEC student component funding (subsidised fee-paying students)
- education and/or training attracting TEC targeted training programmes, including youth training, training opportunities, skill enhancement etc
- Work and Income New Zealand (WINZ) and other government agency-funded training
- education and/or training for international students
- education and/or training for full fee-paying domestic students
- longer-term, short-term (based on days or hours) and on-demand training, including corporate training
- industry training organisation-related training
- both face-to-face training and essential independent course work that is part of course requirements
- distance education
- short-term work experience visits that are solely for the purposes of training
- on-the-job training that involves direct instruction by a trainer whose key function at that time is training, including assessment. (General work that is part of paid employment is not included.)
Do I use credit value or learning hours to calculate the FTE component?
If your course has credits attached/available then you must use the Credit Value Worksheet. Only if your course does not have credits attached/available should you use the Learning Hours Worksheet.
What do you mean by "credit value"?
Credit value measures the average amount of learning needed to complete the course or part of the course. Learning hours includes contact hours, assessments and assignments, supervised practical placements, self-directed learning and study time.
All National Qualifications Framework (NQF) qualifications are credit based, as are the majority of approved local courses. This is also the basis of student component funding from TEC. The standard rule of thumb is:
1 credit = ten hours of study time
120 credits = one standard full-time year of study.
The annual fee is calculated on the credit value of the course, not the credits achieved by individual students.
What is the FTE calculation using credit values?
Total credits for a course divided by 120, x number of students.
Example
My course is 120 credits; I had 15 students enrolled in the previous year.
120 credits x 15 = 15 FTE students
My course is 60 credits; I had 15 students enrolled in the previous year.
60 credits divided by 120 x 15 = 7.5 FTE students
What if the course credits exceed 120?
If the course exceeds 120 credits, and the course is delivered within one year, the course attracts only 1 FTE. Enter 120 in the "Total credits for course" column on the Credit Value Worksheet.What do you mean by "learning hours"?
Learning hours include:
- lecturer and tutor contact hours, including workshops and tutorials
- tests and assignments
- supervised practical placements
- study time
- self-directed learning with tutorial support available
- assessment time.
What is the FTE calculation using learning hours?
Total hours for a course (days/weeks x hours x number of students) divided by 1200.
Examples
My course is 5 days in length; 6 learning hours per day; I had 100 clients enrolled in the previous year.
5 x 6 x100 = 3000 learning hours - divide by 1200 = 2.5 FTEs
My course is 40 weeks; there are 30 learning hours per week; I had 15 students enrolled in the previous year.
40 x 30 x 15 = 1800 learning hours - divide by 1200 = 15 FTEsWhere can I find out about my course hours?
Course hours will be included in course prescriptions and course approval documentation. Remember that for annual fee purposes, total course learning hours (as above) and not just face-to-face tuition must be used.
What if the course hours exceed 1200?
If the hours exceed 1200, and the course is delivered within one year, the course attracts only 1 FTE. Enter 1200 in the "Total hours for course" column on the Learning Hours Worksheet.
Our course is longer than 12 months - how do we calculate learning hours?
Calculate only the hours that were completed within the 12-month period from 1 January to 31 December of the previous year. The remaining hours will be picked up in the next annual fee return.
What if I have a mixture of funded and non-funded students on the same course?
You should complete the Annual Fee Return Form (AF01) with either the Credit Values Worksheet or the Learning Hours Worksheetfor the non-funded students only. We will source the figures for the funded students from TEC.
We only deliver short one-off courses to corporate clients.
You will pay the base fee of $775 and work out your FTE component using the Learning Hours Worksheet. Use the learning hours calculation as in the example above.
What if my course has a choice of part-time or full-time option?
Fill out a row for each course on the worksheets and do a calculation for each option. For example:
Course name:
Graphic Design Level 2 - part time
Graphic Design Level 2 - full time.How do I work out the FTE component if our students are all part time, are on individual learning plans or if we tailor the length of the course to individual needs?
You will pay the base fee of $775 and then work out your FTE component as in the examples above. In this situation it is often simpler to use the learning hours calculation, unless the individualised programmes are clearly structured around credit values. It is important to note that if you are using credit values that the credits achieved by students is irrelevant.
If you have a large number of students doing individualised programmes we will accept a calculation based on an average figure for the weeks and/or hours, provided you support your calculation with evidence.We have rolling enrolments throughout the year - how do we calculate learning hours?
Use the same calculation as in the examples above.
What happens if I disagree with the estimate and/or invoice?
If you disagree with the estimate you will have 30 days from receipt of the invoice to request an adjustment using the Request for Adjustment to Annual Fee Form.
What happens if, once enrolment begins, I think I will have significantly fewer FTEs than the previous year?
If after 31 March you have good evidence that your FTE student numbers for the current year will be significantly different from the previous year's figures you can request an adjustment to the estimate using the Request for Adjustment to Annual Fee Form. The request can be submitted to the Quality Assurance Division before you receive the invoice but only after 31 March of the current year.
If you decide to request an adjustment based on the figures in the invoice, the request must be lodged within 30 days of receipt of the invoice. All requests for adjustments must be supported by sound evidence. Refer to the Request for Adjustment to Annual Fee Form for more information.Providers whose FTEs are recalculated will either receive a credit or be re-invoiced by 30 June for payment by 31 July.
What if my actual FTE student numbers for the current year end up being different from the estimate but I didn't seek an adjustment earlier in the year?
This will balance out in your return for the following year.
What happens if I don't return the Annual Fee Return Form (AF01)?
The Annual Fee Return Form is only required from non-funded providers. If it is not received by 28 February the FTE student component fee is estimated based on historical data, and a 20 percent non-return fee is added.
I can't find an answer to my question!
If you cannot find an answer to your questions, send it to us, or phone 0800 QA HELP (0800 724 357) and ask to speak to the contact person for annual fees in the Quality Assurance Division.