Newsletters

January 2010

Newsletter January 2010

Future of NACCQ

The October newsletter indicated that a working group was looking at the future role of NACCQ and that the gaols and objectives of the organisation were being reviewed. The working group presented its preliminary findings to the executive and the two NACCQ working groups in October and agreed to present a proposal for a new structure to a meeting of the Heads of Schools in December.

The meeting of the Heads of Schools was attended by representatives from 15 of the member institutes (apologies from 2 others) and following a presentation by working group members and some energetic discussion a number of resolutions were passed which should enable the working group to move forward and ensure that NACCQ members will continue to have a vital role to play in the fostering of computing education in the tertiary sector.

All the resolutions received unanimous support are summarised as follows:

  • Confirmation that a collaborative body such as NACCQ should exist to promote computing education within the tertiary sector
  • Confirmation that NACCQ should negotiate ownership of the Bluebook qualifications and continue to update and maintain them
  • Support for the goals and objectives for the new organisation as presented
  • Support for the name of the new organisation to be Computing and Information Technology Research and Education New Zealand (to be known as CITRENZ)
  • Support for the creation of a CITRENZ as a Charitable Trust
  • Support for the creation of a working group to refine a matrix of activities which will define what CITRENZ must do to support CEOs, Heads of Schools, lecturers and students as they deliver computing qualifications

A newly formed working group, consisting of Steve Corich, Garry Robertson, Sam Mann, Mary Hobson, Alison Young and Catherine Snell-Siddle will refine a matrix which will clearly identify areas of activity where the newly formed CITRENZ organisation will provide value for the ITP computing area. The matrix will identify how CITRENZ will be able to assist CEOs, Heads of Schools, lecturers and students as they are involved in the promotion and delivery of computing qualifications within the sector.

Members of the working group will also explore the establishment of CITRENZ as a Charitable Trust and will discuss with Jan Osborne and the ITP CEOs how the existing Bluebook qualifications can be transferred to the newly formed CITRENZ organisation.

It is envisaged that NACCQ will be disestablished at the AGM of NACCQ at the NACCQ/CITRENZ conference in Dunedin in July and that the CITRENZ will become the organisation that will provide representation for ITPs offering computing qualifications from that time.

Collaborative Qualifications Framework
NACCQ has for some time been promoting the development of a set of computing qualifications (degree and diploma) and an application for funding to support the development of an ITP wide collaborative computing qualification framework was submitted to TEC in April 2009. In August TEC informed the CEOs of the consortium that had submitted the application that the application for funding had been unsuccessful. While this is very disappointing, it appears that NACCQ were not the only ones to have been informed that their applications were unsuccessful as none of the funding earmarked for “academic harmonisation” activities within the sector was allocated.

The Curriculum and Quality working group discussed the impact that the funding application would have on the future of the Bluebook qualifications and it was agreed that the existing qualifications should undergo a “zero based” review and that a replacement set of qualifications be developed that better align with the computing degrees that are being delivered at IIPs throughout the country. There will be one further review of the existing Bluebook and that work will commence on the zero based review of the qualifications in 2010.

Conference 2010
Lesley Smith and the team from Otago Polytechnic have been busy planning for the 23rd NACCQ Conference which will occur between July the 6th and 9th in Dunedin. The Call for Papers has been sent out and authors are encouraged to start writing so that they can submit proposals and/or full papers by the submission date of 15th March 2010. Further information can be found at the conference web site (http://naccq2010.infotech.ac.nz/) or by selecting the link found on the NACCQ web site home page.

BACIT
Volume 7 of the Bulletin of Applied Computing and Information Technology (BACIT) has been produced and can be viewed online at http://www.naccq.ac.nz/bacit/index.html. Thanks to Michael Verharrt, Kassie Petrova and the team who have worked tirelessly to produce the new and improved version of this double blind refereed online publication.

 

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