About Significant Plan Amendments and Replacement Plans
About Significant Plan Amendments and Replacement Plans
This information supports you to understand criteria for Significant Plan Amendments and Replacement Plans which come into effect from 1 January 2026.
This information supports you to understand criteria for Significant Plan Amendments and Replacement Plans which come into effect from 1 January 2026.
What are Significant Plan Amendments and Replacement Plans?
The Education and Training Act 2020 (the Act) defines a Significant Plan Amendment (SPA) as a change a tertiary education organisation (TEO) makes to either:
- a tertiary education programme or an activity that the Tertiary Education Commission (TEC) funds, or
- any of the proposed outcomes (ie, commitments) a tertiary education provider has in relation to those programmes.
A Replacement Plan (RP) is not defined in the legislation.
The Act requires TEC to set criteria for SPAs and RPs. If a proposed change:
- meets the criteria, a TEO must ask us to approve the change
- does not meet the criteria, a TEO can make that change without our approval.
What are the criteria intended to do?
The criteria are designed to:
- enable TEOs to make some changes without our approval, and
- clarify when more significant changes must be approved by TEC.
The criteria:
- create more certainty for providers
- allow flexibility, and
- reduce compliance.
How do the criteria work?
There are two ways an SPA or RP can progress:
- a TEO satisfies the criteria for an SPA or RP and asks us to approve any proposed changes, or
- we are satisfied that a TEO meets the criteria for an SPA or RP, and we require them to reassess their existing Plan with a view to changing or replacing it.
Once an SPA or RP is submitted to us, we assess it against the criteria we use for each investment round to determine whether to approve or decline it. This is set out in the current Investment Plan Gazette notice for investment in the relevant year.
We can also propose an SPA or RP if we are satisfied that it is reasonably necessary to ensure accountability for public funding. This process is separate to us setting criteria.
What are the criteria’s legal status?
The criteria are a type of secondary legislation published in a Gazette notice. The Gazette notice is a legal instrument where we set the criteria for Significant Plan Amendments and Replacement Plans and how these will be assessed (using the current Investment Plan Gazette notice for investment in the relevant year). The Gazette notice is published in the New Zealand Gazette and on our website.
The criteria come into effect on 1 January 2026.
Education (Criteria for Significant Amendment to a Plan and Replacement of a Plan) Notice 2025