New Zealand Scholarship

New Zealand Scholarship is a New Zealand secondary school award, awarded to a limited number of students, that provides financial support for study at a New Zealand university. It is awarded by assessing candidates against challenging standards through an examination or, in the case of some subjects, submission of a portfolio and/or report.^[1] Successful candidates have the potential to receive as much as $10,000 per year over three years depending on the class of award that they achieve. It is highly competitive as only 3% of the number of students studying a subject at NCEA Level 3 are able to achieve a passing grade on the scholarship assessment. New Zealand Scholarship is administered by the New Zealand Qualifications Authority (NZQA), alongside the National Certificate of Educational Achievement (NCEA). It is sometimes referred to as NCEA Level 4, sitting at Level 4 on the New Zealand Qualifications Framework.

In 2020, 10,433 students were entered into New Zealand Scholarship assessments. There were 20,095 individual subject entries. Only 13,110 of these were marked and graded as some were absent or void.^[2] 2,151 students received a Scholarship award of some form.^[3]