Category: Ako Aronui News and Updates

Ako Aronui is Auckland University of Technology’s professional recognition programme, accredited by Advance HE. We are now in the second year of our programme and, with a growing number of participants, we are seeking to appoint an additional External Assessor. It is envisaged that the Assessor would start in their role in late June 2019 and work on the programme until the end of 2020 in the first instance.

The primary role of the Assessor will be to review Senior Fellow applications and attend assessment panels (virtually or in person) at up to three points in the academic year. They may also be required to moderate a sample of Associate Fellow and Fellow applications and contribute to an annual report. The nominee should hold either Senior Fellow or Principal Fellow recognition and have at least two years’ experience of assessing Senior Fellow applications. The post-holder will be paid an annual fee on successful completion of the work, plus expenses.

We welcome applications from interested colleagues by 2nd May in the form of a short CV and brief declaration of interest sent to ako.aronui@aut.ac.nz

Regrettably we are unable to accept applications from University of Tasmania as our existing external assessor is from this institution.

More information about Ako Aronui can be found at https://cflat.aut.ac.nz/ako-aronui

Role description for External Assessor for the Ako Aronui Programme

Principal duties and responsibilities

1. Review the quality of the Programme’s assessment against national standards defined in the UKPSF as contextualised in the Ako Aronui Professional Standards Framework
2. Moderate a sample of Associate Fellow and Fellow applications
3. Act as one of the three assessors for Senior Fellowship applications, until AUT approve internal decision-making at Descriptor 3. Once this approval has been given, the External Assessor will then review SFHEA applications, as part of (2) above
4. Contribute to an annual written report to the Ako Aronui team and the AUT Learning and Teaching Committee on quality of assessment process and standards, raising any concerns and recommendations as appropriate to maintain and/or enhance these further
5. Participate in any professional development appropriate to the role at AUT
6. The Assessor will report to the Ako Aronui Programme Manager

Criteria to be satisfied by the post-holder

1. The nominee should hold a minimum of Senior Fellow HEA professional recognition
2. The nominee should be suitably experienced in making HEA Fellowship judgements and current in their knowledge and understanding of the requirements of HEA Senior Fellow applications
3. The nominee should hold no more than two external examiner and/or HEA External Assessor/Reviewer appointments (including this one)
4. The nominee should be employed at a different institution to that of an outgoing HEA External Assessor (if applicable)
5. The nominee should not have had any direct ties with the University or its staff in the last three years
6. The nominee should not have acted as a consultant to the Ako Aronui team within the last three years
7. This appointment should not result in a reciprocal arrangement

The Ako Aronui team are presenting three items, two presentations and a poster, at the Advance HE (formerly HEA) Conference this week in Birmingham. We look forward to seeing you at our presentations or coming by to have a chat at the poster session. For those that are attending our sessions, here are some resources to check out:

• Ako Aronui te reo Māori term glossary
• The Ako Aronui Philosophy and Framework

If you are at the Conference, come have a kōrero with us:

Ako Aronui: Focusing on caring for our people

Nell Buissink, John Davies, Piki Diamond, Julia Hallas, Jaye McIsaac, Mark Northover, and Emily Whitehead, Auckland University of Technology

In imagining how the HEA Fellowship framework would best suit AUT’s regional and cultural context, underpinning Maori world views have become the core areas of focus. Recognising Aotearoa New Zealand’s bicultural origins, but also supporting our multicultural world, the concept of manaaki (mindful support) emerged as the central value for both students and academics. We describe the process of mapping the UKPSF (the credential central to Fellowship) to a core set of principles or values for the fellowship categories. A pilot programme enabled a refinement of these values, which drive the University’s newly accredited fellowship pathway

2:30pm July 4, Session SP3.11a, Room 231

Practice to Strategy: Implementing a locally based framework for teaching recognition and its impact on a university’s strategic direction

Nell Buissink, John Davies, Piki Diamond, Julia Hallas, Jaye McIsaac, Mark Northover, and Emily Whitehead, Auckland University of Technology

AUT is one of a number of recently subscribed HEA / Advance HE institutions in Australasia, and is the first university in Aotearoa New Zealand to introduce a comprehensive framework for teaching recognition. The Ako Aronui Framework is based on indigenous Maori values and the UKPSF. A key consideration was combining the local context alongside institutional needs. In this case study we show how senior managers view the implications of implementing an innovative, bicultural framework. By sharing our experience we hope to make explicit the process for gaining strategic impact from developing a locally based framework in conjunction with HEA / Advance HE.

4:10pm July 4, Session SP4.14a, Room 375

Nau Mai, Haere Mai: Welcoming the UKPSF into Auckland University of Technology 

Nell Buissink, John Davies, Piki Diamond, Julia Hallas, Jaye McIsaac, Mark Northover and Emily Whitehead, Auckland University of Technology

The pōwhiri, is a Māori welcoming ritual with an objective to make visitors one with the host. We adopted this ritual for the arrival of the UKPSF into our Aotearoa New Zealand university to establish a free and open negotiation to ensure a culturally relevant and responsive approach. We will illustrate how the pōwhiri protocols mapped the journey which AUT, the UKPSF, and the HEA undertook, from which the inception of Ako Aronui was birthed. Adopting pōwhiri protocols allowed AUT to determine and lead how we would engage with the UKPSF in a way that was mutually beneficial.

Litchfield Lounge (Poster Session on July 4th, 3:40pm)

Dr Nell Buissink SFHEA and Jaye McIsaac SFHEA attended the Inaugural Meeting of the Australiasian Accredited Programme Managers Network, hosted by Western Sydney University. AUT joined with Western Sydney University, Murdoch University, Queensland University of Technology, Massey University, University of Tasmania, Australian National University and University of Sydney for detailed discussion and collaboration around creating and managing accredited programmes with the Higher Education Academy (HEA).

The Ako Aronui team has published a paper in the Higher Education Research & Development (HERD) Journal called “Challenging a measured university from an indigenous perspective: placing ‘manaaki’ at the heart of our professional development programme” which reflects on the development of the Ako Aronui Profession Learning Programme. It reflects on the journey of embedding of Māori values and principles in the Uk Professional Standards Framework (UKPSF), in particular manaaki, to contextualise the UKPSF for the unique Aotearoa New Zealand context.

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