The Pharmacy Council is responsible for accrediting education providers to ensure their programmes support the delivery of safe and competent health practitioners.
Previously, accreditation was undertaken by an external accreditation provider based in Australia. To give greater effect to Te Tiriti o Waitangi and enable greater insight into the accreditation process, the Council is developing an accreditation system more specific to Aotearoa New Zealand settings.
15 June 2023 we published the new accreditation standards. Read the media release.
Click here to read and download the Accreditation Standards for Aotearoa New Zealand Pharmacy Programmes
Work plan
Pre-implementation work has included:
- Investigating contemporary and evidence-informed accreditation models and practices.
- Meeting with the current education providers to determine accreditation requirements of providers to inform the approach to developing the accreditation standards and processes.
- Working with independent experts in accreditation, education, Te Tiriti o Waitangi and cultural safety to develop the work plan and working drafts versions of accreditation standards and guidance documentation.
| Timing | Key Activities | Status |
| October 2021 to February 2022 |
Initial scope and planning phase |
Completed |
| March 2022 to September 2022 | Engagement with education providers and key stakeholders | Completed |
| June 2022 – October 2022 | Establish Accreditation Working and Advisory Group to provide independent expert advice | Completed |
| March 2022 – December 2022 | Consultation drafts of standards and guidance documents | Completed |
NB: Timelines may be subject to change
Independent Accreditation Expert Working and Advisory Group
The purpose of the Accreditation Expert Working and Advisory Group (AE-WAG) is to support Council to establish and deliver robust and credible Accreditation Standards and processes for 2023 and beyond.
The functions of the AE-WAG are:
- Advise: Work closely with Council team members to provide objective and independent subject matter insight, expertise and experience to develop and deliver high-quality accreditation standards and processes.
- Assure: Provide a level of assurance to Council and the Māori and Health Equity Advisory Group (MHEAG) on the development of high-quality and authentically partnered accreditation standards and processes. MHEAG partners with and supports Council to give effect to Te Tiriti o Waitangi and support the achievement of health equity.
- Synthesise: provide objective, independent and critical value-add analysis and advice on stakeholder feedback received in relation to the developed accreditation standards and processes.
Read the AE-WAG Terms of Reference
The members of AE-WAG are:
Te Kani Kingi
Professor Te Kani Kingi is Executive Director of Research and Innovation at Te Whare Wananga o Awanuiarangi. Prior to this, he was an Associate Professor at Massey University in Wellington and concurrently held three roles as Director Māori (within the Office of the Associate Vice-Chancellor), Director of the Research Centre for Māori Health and Development (within the College of Health) and Director of Academy for Māori Research and Scholarship.
He has formally been an executive member of the New Zealand Public Health Association, The Mental Health Advocacy Coalition, the National Ethics Advisory Committee, the National Health Committee, the Public Health Advisory Committee, the New Zealand Pharmacy Council, Nga Pae o te Maramatanga International Research Advisory Panel, Statistics NZ Advisory Board, Whānau Tahi Advisory Board, past Chair of the NKK (HRC) Committee, a member of the IMSB (Auckland Council) Advisory Board, Chair of the Te Pou Matakana (Whānau Ora) funding board, and Chair of the New Zealand Mental Health Commission.
He is currently a member of the AKO Aotearoa Assessment Committee, the Board of the Joint Centre for Disaster Research, Research Associate of the National Institute for Economic and Demographic Research, Chair of the Te Rau Puawai mental health scholarship programme, and a board member of Tane Ora. He was recently appointed to the Veteran’s Health Committee, the Natural Hazards Social Science Committee (GNS Science), the Independent Science Panel (Sustainable Seas National Science Challenge), and to the Australian Physiotherapy Council Accreditation Board. In 2021, he was appointed to the Council of the Royal Society of New Zealand and the Health Research Council’s Biomedical Assessment Committee.
He has a specialist interest in health outcome measurement (psychometrics), Māori mental health, longitudinal research, public health and health service delivery. He is currently leading a research project, funded by the Vic Davis Memorial Trust which investigates the mental health expectations of Eastern Bay of Plenty youth.
He was born and raised in Poroporo (near Whakatāne) and educated at St Stephen’s School in Bombay. Te Kani has tribal affiliations to Ngāti Pūkeko, Ngāti Awa and Ngai Tai.
John Shaw
John Shaw was the Foundation Head of the Auckland School of Pharmacy and Professor of Pharmacy at the University of Auckland until his retirement in 2017. He has many years of experience in teaching a range of health professional students about pharmacology and therapeutics and his research focused on the optimal use of medicines. John was previously a long-serving member of the Pharmacy Council of New Zealand and was influential in the development of extended roles for pharmacists, including the Community Pharmacists Anticoagulation Management Service (CPAMS) and the Pharmacist Prescriber role.
Adele Print
Adele holds a variety of roles. She is a Professional Teaching Fellow at the University of Auckland and a practising pharmacist at Auckland District Health Board and with the Northern Region Health Coordination Centre Outreach team. Adele is credentialed as an Advanced Practice Pharmacist in Australia (pharmacy education and practitioner development) and has been a member of the Australian Pharmacy Council Accreditation Committee since 2016.
In 2020, Adele received the Dennis Pickup Clinical Educator Award at the University of Auckland. In 2016, Adele won the Chief Executive Award at Auckland District Health Board Excellence Awards for a project she co-led in primary care to improve medicines use for people with intellectual disabilities.
Kyle Wilby
Kyle John Wilby is an Associate Professor at the College of Pharmacy, Faculty of Health at Dalhousie University. He has a Bachelor of Science in Pharmacy from the University of Saskatchewan (2008), a residency from Vancouver Coastal Health (2009), a post-graduate PharmD from the University of British Columbia (2012), and a PhD in Health Professions Education from Maastricht University (2019). He is the former Associate Dean for Academic Affairs at the College of Pharmacy Qatar University and the former Associate Dean for Undergraduate Programmes at the School of Pharmacy, University of Otago.
Kyle led and managed the accreditation self-study reports for the Bachelor of Science in Pharmacy and Doctor of Pharmacy programmes in Qatar under the Canadian Council for Accreditation of Pharmacy Programs (CCAPP) standards (2018) and the Bachelor of Pharmacy programme at Otago under the Australian Pharmacy Council (APC) standards (2021). He has been a member of technical and expert working groups relating to assessment and accreditation for both CCAPP and APC.
He has published over 140 peer reviewed articles and is an Associate Editor for the American Journal of Pharmaceutical Education. He also brings a lens of equity, diversity and inclusion specifically relating to sexual and gender diversity.