Welcome to the Compliance website at the University of Otago.
Legal compliance is fundamental to the University's achievement of its strategic imperatives and to its standing as a research-led University with an international reputation for excellence.
- Otago's commitment to compliance
- Legal Compliance Framework
- Keeping Staff informed – Compliance Guides
Otago's commitment to compliance
Otago is committed to being fully compliant with all relevant legislation, regulations, licences, and recognised industry and professional codes that govern its daily operations as a tertiary institution.
All University staff, students and associates have a responsibility to ensure that their activities on behalf of the University comply with applicable law and related University policies and procedures. This website provides information on the University’s compliance framework and the compliance obligations that effect daily activities and operations of the University.
Legal Compliance Framework
The University’s compliance framework incorporates the following:
Policies & Procedures
All University policies are available in the Policy Database. To assist in complying with these policies, where appropriate, policy owners have developed procedures and guidelines. These are also available via the Policy Database and easy-to-find by using the website’s ‘search’ functionality.
Legal Compliance Programme
The University's Legal Compliance Programme has been developed to assist the University in meeting its legal compliance obligations. The intent of the programme is two-fold:
1. To improve awareness: To provide a series of user-friendly law guides covering the University’s core activities. These are designed to help staff understand the University’s core processes for a particular activity (e.g. contracting) and explain the basic legal principles that apply. The law guides are available to all staff under "Compliance Guides" below.
2. To measure compliance: To provide a means of measuring compliance with relevant legislation across the University. Responsibility for key legislative obligations is been allocated to appropriate people within the University who are asked to complete an annual survey that enables us to measure compliance. It is important to note that given the University’s devolved structure, a large number of staff share responsibility for the same legal obligations and this is reflected in the content of the surveys. Those selected to answer the survey are encouraged to consult their staff so that survey responses give a fair representation of ‘how things are done’ within a division. Results from the annual survey round are reported to the Vice-Chancellor and to Council.
Monitoring
Health and Safety is responsible for overseeing and coordinating various monitoring activities throughout the University for all Health and Safety related legislation. This is done to assess the ongoing integrity of our compliance activities in this area.
Keeping staff informed – Compliance Guides
Compliance at Otago means performing your duties ethically and honestly and demonstrating an understanding of, respect for, and adherence to the laws, policies and procedures applicable to your role at the University.
The following materials are intended as educational tools to help inform staff of their legal obligations and the standards of behaviour expected by the University. It is expected that the information available on this website will be supplemented by more tailored role- specific training at departmental level.
- Policy Database: a full list of all policies and procedures arranged both alphabetically and under convenient subject headings.
- Compliance Guides: A series of law guides that provide a plain English summary of key legal obligations for each core area of activity in the University with the exception of employment related matters. Information concerning employment law can be found on Human Resources web pages.
- Guide to Building and Property
- Guide to Health and Medicine Related Legislation
- Guide to Residential Colleges
- Guide to Use and Storage of Information
- Guide to Competition and Consumer Protection Laws
- Guide to Food and Alcohol Legislation
- Guide to Health and Safety
- Guide to Intellectual Property
- Guide to Animal Welfare Legislation
- Guide to the Resource Management Act
- HOD Information Sheet - Commercial Roles Outside the University
- HOD Information Sheet - Contracting On Behalf of the University
- HOD Information Sheet - Tuition Fees and Cost Recovery from Students
Things to Remember
- Commit to the highest standards of professional and ethical conduct in all activities.
- Be aware of laws, rules, regulations and policies that apply to your job.
- Respect the rights of others.
- Avoid conflicts of interest and self-dealing.
- Know where to find all approved University Policies.
- Promote accuracy and truth in University business transactions.
- Do not accept any gift that could appear to influence your official conduct.
- Maintain absolute confidentiality regarding student, employee, and patient records.
- Do not destroy any records except in accordance with the Records Management Policy or after consultation with the Corporate Records Manager.
For more information please contact Alex Sweetman, Risk Manager
- Tel 64 3 479 5005
- Fax 64 3 479 8040
- Email alexandra.sweetman@otago.ac.nz
