The Pastoral Care Code
The Pastoral Care Code outlines our role in making sure students are well and safe. Learn about our improvement projects, provide feedback, or make a complaint.
Pastoral Care Code
The Pastoral Care Code (the Code) highlights the minimum standards of care both domestic and international students should expect while studying at Te Herenga Waka—Victoria University of Wellington. It requires the University to help our students be:
- safe, physically and mentally
- respected and accepted for who they are
- supported in their learning and wellbeing
- connected with their social and cultural networks
- able to have their say in decisions about service.
The Code holds the University accountable to students, whānau, and the wider community.
The University is working closely with a wide range of student representation groups and leaders on key wellbeing improvement projects to ensure student voice is embedded and partnership is upheld. In line with the Code's guidelines, these key projects aim to further support students' wellbeing, development and educational achievement, while engaging and empowering our students to manage their own wellbeing.
NZQA—the New Zealand Qualifications Authority—administers the Pastoral Care Code. More information and the Code document in English and Te Reo Māori can be found on NZQA's webpage about the Tertiary and International Learners Code of Practice.
Student Engagement
The Student Engagement Framework has been developed to provide foundational basis for genuine partnership and engagement between the University and students.
The Framework establishes the vision, values and objectives of student engagement within the University. The vision of the framework is to create a culture of collaboration—based on genuine respect, transparency, and inclusion—to understand and respond to diverse learner voices and wellbeing and safety needs in a way that upholds their mana and autonomy and aligns with our pastoral care responsibilities.
Self-review of the University's compliance to the Pastoral Care Code
The University strives to look after its students to ensure they are safe, respected, and supported in their learning and wellbeing.
A self-review is a review of the University’s compliance to the Pastoral Care Code. This review ensures that we are looking after our students by collating data from student surveys, other feedback channels, internal documentation, and prior reporting.
Read our 2024 self-review report.
Complaints processes
External complaints
We ask that you raise any concerns or make a formal complaint to the University before engaging with external complaints processes.
Students can access free schemes for financial and contractual disputes. There are separate operators for domestic and international students:
- domestic students can use the Tertiary Education Learner Dispute Resolution service
- international students can use the Study Complaints service.
Pastoral Care Code compliance complaints
If you believe that the University is failing to meet the outcomes or requirements of the Pastoral Care Code, you can make a complaint to NZQA as the administrator of the Code.
Critical incidents involving students
Student wellbeing and safety is taken very seriously by the University. There are systems in place across all campuses and for all university related off-campus activities, to ensure any immediate or emerging concerns are identified and addressed.
The University is also committed to providing support to students before, during, and after a critical incident occurs.
Read our report on critical incidents relating to tauira in 2023.