Name change for legal executive course
The NZLS Legal Executive Course will from this year be known as the New Zealand Law Society Legal Executive Diploma.
The change of title reflects the course’s current status as part of the New Zealand tertiary education system. It is also a move to regularise the course’s listing on the public education website, the Kiwiquals Register, which is a database list of all New Zealand quality assured qualifications of 40 credits or more.
After two years' consultation with NZQA and, more recently, ITPQ (Institutes of Technology and Polytechnics Quality) which provide approval, accreditation, monitoring and audit services to institutes of technology and polytechnics, the course has been approved as meeting the requirements for it to be properly registered.
This approval for registration assures the providers will continue to receive government funding for students on the course as well as providing a consistent and accurate source of information about it.
Originally known as the Certificate of Attainment, the qualification was changed to the Legal Executive Certificate for a number of years. The title ‘certificate’, however, denotes a lower level of learning than the syllabus requires, and so was dropped for its most recent title, NZLS Legal Executive Course.
The current course is made up of six, full-year papers.
To be recognised as a diploma it must be registered at level 5, 6 or 7 with the top 72 credits defining the level at which it can be registered. At least 120 credits must be at level 4 or above. Assessment by ITPQ has confirmed that the two introductory papers are Level 5 and the four advanced papers are Level 6. ITPQ has confirmed that the course syllabus meets the learning outcome requirements to be registered as a diploma, and the providers support this.
The change of title more correctly reflects the academic level of legal executive studies in New Zealand and comes into effect this month.
Students graduating from the course from now on will be awarded the New Zealand Law Society Legal Executive Diploma. Students who completed the course before 2010 will not have their certificates reissued.
More information is available from Elizabeth Berry, National Coordinator, elizabeth.berry@lawsociety.org.nz.