The New Zealand Scholarship Award

The Scholarship Awards are:

Single Subject Award

• for students who get scholarship in up to two subjects
• a 'one off award of $500 per subject

Top Subject Scholar Award

• for students who are top in one of the 27 Scholarship subjects
• $2,000 each year for three years as long as students maintain a 'B' grade average in tertiary study

Scholarship Award

• for students who get three scholarship subjects
• $2,000 each year for three years as long as students maintain a 'B' grade average in tertiary study

Outstanding Scholar Award

• for the top 40-60 students who get three Scholarship subjects with at least two outstanding performances
• $5,000 each year for three years as long as students maintain a 'B' grade average in tertiary study

Premier Award

• for the very top 5 to 10 students who get three Scholarships with outstanding performances
• $10,000 each year for three years as long as students maintain a 'B' grade average in tertiary study

Accumulating Awards

Where a candidate meets the criteria for more than one award, he or she will receive only the award of the highest monetary value in most circumstances. However, if a candidate receives a Top Subject Scholar Award, and also gets Scholarship in other subjects he or she will also receive one $500 Single Subject Award.

Enquiries

Circulars are available from the Qualifications Authority website

www.nzqa.govt.nz/publications/circulars

General Information

The very best students in each of the Scholarship examinations subjects will achieve Scholarship. The number of awards in each subject will be based on a proportion of the number of students nationally in Year 13 entered for national assessment in those subjects.

Scholarship is a monetary award to recognise top students. It will not attract credits nor contribute towards a qualification but the fact that a student has gained a Scholarship will appear on the Record of Achievement.

As was the case last year, Scholarship will enable students to be assessed against challenging standards, and will be demanding for the most able students in each subject. Scholarship students will again be expected to demonstrate high-level critical thinking, abstraction and generalisation, and to integrate, synthesise and apply knowledge, skills, understanding and ideas to complex situations. This is reflected in the expectations of the subject performance standards.

Scholarship examinations will continue to focus on the content of Level 8 of the curriculum, and student performance will be assessed against a schedule that ensures a ranking of candidates is produced by fine-grained criteria.

Scholarship Assessment Level

Scholarship examinations will continue to focus on the content of Level 8 of the curriculum.

Assessments within each subject are based on the learning outcomes expressed in Level 3 Achievement Standards for each subject, and the relevant curriculum documents referred to within each subject.

Some subject performance standards, such as Biology, Chemistry and History, make reference to learning areas, topics or outcomes that are specified by the Level 3 Achievement Standards. This is an indication for teachers and students and provides guidance on the depth of understanding and preparation required to perform well.

Key Messages about Scholarship

• Scholarship is challenging, demanding and will reward the most able students in each of the externally examined Scholarship subjects.
• Successful Scholarship students will have shown very high levels of academic ability and skills, beyond those expected at NCEA Level 3.
• Scholarship will be awarded to the very best students in each of the Scholarship examination subjects. The number of awards in most cases will be between 2 and 3 per cent of the total number of Year 13 students in each subject (at Level 3).
• Scholarship is not a qualification and does not attract credits.