PBRF Quality Evaluation 2026 – Consultation open on guidelines and audit methodology
PBRF Quality Evaluation 2026 – Consultation open on guidelines and audit methodology
Consultation is now open on the draft TEO Guidelines, Assessment Guidelines, and the revised audit methodology.
Consultation is now open on the draft TEO Guidelines, Assessment Guidelines, and the revised audit methodology.
This Performance Based Research Fund (PBRF) Quality Evaluation 2026 update covers:
- PBRF Sector Reference Group (SRG) consultation on draft versions of the full TEO and Assessment Guidelines
- Tertiary Education Commission (TEC) consultation on a revised audit methodology
See Sector Reference Group Consultation Papers 2026
SRG consultation on TEO and Assessment Guidelines
The TEO Guidelines (PDF 1.9 MB) and Assessment Guidelines (PDF 1.2 MB) incorporate the in-principle decisions made by the TEC on the basis of the SRG’s consultation process and recommendations since September 2021. The accompanying Summary of TEC's In-Principle Decisions (PDF 464 KB) provides a full record of these in-principle decisions for reference.
The SRG is consulting on the full drafts of these guidelines to ensure that all changes have been clearly explained, rather than for further feedback on the decisions made earlier in the process.
The draft TEO Guidelines include three new proposals for changes based on earlier sector feedback on the SRG’s technical matters and reporting papers:
- Introducing the use of Australian and New Zealand Standard Research Classification (ANZSRC) codes for the Field of Research field in the Evidence Portfolio (EP), rather than a free text field. This proposal is based on feedback from the University of Otago.
- Adding an EP Language field, to allow participating staff members to indicate if any languages other than English are used in any of the Example of Research Excellence (ERE) Outputs included in the EP. This proposal is based on feedback from Victoria University of Wellington.
- Updating the description of “Software” as a Research Output type to better reflect current practice. This proposal is based on feedback from the University of Auckland.
TEC consultation on revised audit methodology
The TEC is consulting on the draft audit methodology (PDF 382 KB) developed with our TEO auditing partner Deloitte.
Consultation, feedback and next steps
Consultation on the draft guidelines and the revised audit methodology is open from 11 August to 22 September 2023.
You can submit feedback via this online survey: TEO, Assessment guidelines and audit methodology
The SRG will carefully consider all feedback. The final guidelines will be published in November 2023.