We are delighted to share that in our latest External Evaluation and Review by NZQA, Laidlaw College retained our Category 1 status, rating ‘highly confident’ on educational performance and ‘highly confident’ on self-assessment – the highest possible ratings.

Among the highlights of the report, the summary statement begins:

“Laidlaw College has a clear vision and purpose, and a well-executed strategy to fulfil it. The valued outcomes being achieved each year are clearly meeting the needs of learners and multiple, diverse stakeholders. Bold thinking and the efforts of governance, senior leaders and all other staff have enabled significant change and improvement to be achieved since the last EER.”

The Evaluators were highly complimentary of our academic quality and the support that we offer to students, writing:  “In the context of large-scale organisational change and the challenges posed to staff and students by the pandemic, maintenance of programme-level academic performance and quality has been exceptional.” 

We are particularly pleased at some of the distinctives that the Evaluators noticed about Laidlaw – our rich and diverse student community, the way that we serve and connect with the Church and wider Christian community, and our focus on contextualising our work in Aotearoa:

“Laidlaw continues to provide high value to graduates and stakeholders. It has an active alumni community which spans decades…. There are persistent efforts to ensure that students and graduates are connected to the wider college community.”

“There is great diversity in the overall student cohort, with students studying in face- to-face and supported distance/online modes at Henderson, Manukau, Christchurch, or solely from home. There is also useful diversity in students’ church affiliation and work history, which enriches the discussions, group-work and assignment topics.”

“The embedding of mātauranga Māori (and Pasifika theology) into programmes and wider institutional life is neither superficial, nor done simply in reaction to wider trends in Aotearoa. It is being carefully led by, or in partnership with, tangata whenua.”

The report is a testament to the brilliant work that our faculty and wider team do every day at Laidlaw, and says many encouraging things about the quality of our programmes, how our students achieve, our clarity of vision and mission, and how we serve communities across Aotearoa.  

Click here to read the full report.