The new national education centre is to be named Catholic Institute of Aotearoa New Zealand, Te P√Ö¬´tahi Katorika ki Aotearoa(CIANZ). The change will take place in time for the start of the 2011 academic year.
The NZ Catholic Bishops Conference finalised arrangements for CIANZ at their October meeting. The change represents a more unified approach to providing courses for people working in pastoral ministry, teaching, chaplaincy and for Catholics interested in learning more about their faith. CIANZ will be responsible for NZQA courses, Walk by Faith, Understanding Sexuality and Catholic Maori spirituality courses.
Bioethics, research into educational, pastoral, theological and moral issues, and the work of NCRS (including professional development management) will form part of CIANZ. Professional development currently run by dioceses for people in pastoral ministry, teachers and chaplains will not be included, nor will the religious education adviser positions in dioceses.
CIANZ will be constituted as a charitable trust with the diocesan bishops as trustees. They will own CIANZ in equal shares. A governance board will be appointed by the trustees with at least two bishops appointed as members. At least one member of the governance board will be appointed from nominations provided by Te Runanga o te Hahi katorika ki Aotearoa. The chair will be appointed by the Trust Board.
A Finance and Audit Committee and the Academic Board will be appointed by and report to the governance board. The board will will conduct the process of staff appointments for the CEO and these will be approved by all the trustees.
The employment by CIANZ of staff who currently work for or who are contracted by dioceses or the NZCBC will be worked through on an individual basis. The unity of CIANZ will be a factor in this process.
Staff currently full-time teaching or administering courses which will come under CIANZ will become employees of CIANZ. Diocesan-employed staff who teach CIANZ course(s) as a minor part of their job will continue to be employed by the diocese.
Staff who teach or administer CIANZ courses and also have another role in the diocese will be employed by either the diocese and seconded to CIANZ for part of the time, or vice versa, depending upon the relative proportion of time they spend on each type of work. This will be worked through individually with the aim of ensuring that each person has only one employer. The same principle and process will apply to NZCBC employees.
The national administration of CIANZ will be in Wellington but will be physically separate from the offices of the Archdiocese of Wellington. The bishops expect to develop a significant campus in Auckland and further develop the teaching sites in the other dioceses.
The timeframe the bishops are working to is:
- November 2010 – WCEC to apply to NZQA for a name change;
- December 2010 – appointment of governance board (to take up role no later than mid-February 2011), sign off on trust deed and governance board constitution;
- June 2011 – CEO to be in place;
- January 2012 – the new CIANZ structure becomes operational.