Degrees in New Zealand

Someone may help here, I've got a few questions about New Zealand's University level degree structure.

I get that the New Zealand Qualifications Authority set a bachelor's at 360 points and bachelor's with honours at 480. Therefore it takes 3-4 years to complete based on 120 points each year. A proportion of the courses, at least 72 points, must be at level 7 and so on.

But why isn't there an outfit offering their courses night and day, seven days a week, all year round. If you break the year into three semesters and 60 points each semester, an honours degree is completed in three years - the first two years for the bachelors, then a final two semesters for the honours.

Is there a rule about how much you can study full-time on one subject in one twelve month period? And if there is, how about 120 points toward one degree with another semester each year spent doing another degree. 

Something like this:-

Year One: Semester One: Second Degree, Semester Two/Three: Main Degree
Year Two: Semester One/Two: Main Degree Semester Three: Second Degree
Year Three: Semester One: Second Degree Semester Two/Three: Main Degree

First (Main) Bachelor's - 360 points
Second Bachelor's - 180 points plus cross-credit 90 points (say): 270 points, meaning the second degree could be completed with another year of part-time study.

Usually it takes five years to do a double degree.

I'm completing a novel at the moment so you can see I've got far too much time on my hands.

Thinking about this, BPP University in the U.K. offers two year accelerated degrees, such as an LLB (Hons), studying full time. If I understand right, this school has the largest law student enrolment in England (mostly this is because they do the professional component upon graduation which brings their numbers up). These people come out and go straight to becoming Solicitors or Barristers. 

Note: BPP also do an LLB (Hons) [Distance Learning] either full-time, full-time accelerated or part-time. Sounds clever, according to data I checked, they have one person doing this degree in NZ. I wonder who that person is? If you think about it, this is a real option (if perhaps quite expensive). 

Consider a case where the person is born in England, or their parent or grandparent was born there. They could get a degree that is fully up to speed upon arriving to work there. 

Graduates from NZ will be quick to tell you their qualifications are accepted, well yes, but that degree has to go through a process of equivalence and more courses may have to be taken to bring the person up to speed (maybe EU law and so on). This way the student living in NZ with the right to work in England, has a qualification immediately accepted, no questions asked.

Technology is changing the landscape of tertiary education. The problem with using the internet was how do you stop cheating? Anyone could be on that keyboard, right? And in the past that was true.

But now, without going as far as requiring fingerprint or retinal identification (though somewhere that's probably being done), you could run courses with virtual chat rooms for tutorials and classes, even labs. That way you can see if the student has someone sitting next to them helping. A proportion of the course could be viva voce (oral).

From login a certain amount of required attendance at tutorials, lectures online in real time (some could be missed and caught up with delayed viewing, perhaps 60/40 split as a minimum), seminar presentation, and oral answers to questions. 

The student then presents essays and completes assignment questions in own time by due dates. If you do all this I don't see the point in the classic three hour exam, but if one were required then it could be open book with the student at home after log in and video link so the examiner can see the person receives no help. 

I think with BPP, exams are held in a room you have accepted by them, somewhere separate, or you deliver yourself to their location. That's fine but with technology the way it is now, I think it is practically redundant.

Columbia University in New York have real time webcasts that are free if you register. This means academic heavyweights talking about complex topics like corporate ethics and transformational thinking. You can see where this is headed, they'll be offering degrees this way next (though New York is seriously out of sync with NZ - ouch - 5am starts).

Or consider our neck of the woods, Bond University in Queensland offers accelerated programmes, such as a Bachelor of Business in two years, or a law degree in eight semesters. 

For a law degree think about this; a Bond University law degree started in January 2016, eight semesters taken sequentially has the law degree done in two years and two semesters. Now okay, no student loans for Kiwis over there, but if money is no object then I'd say a Kiwi would have to think about jumping the ditch. They can live and work there, so they would be up and practising while back home their classmates were still studying.

Why doesn't New Zealand offer accelerated programmes?

Edited to add: Found one college in Auckland, offering a Bachelor of International Business in 7-9 semesters, in theory it could be done in less than three years.

I note they have holidays. How Bond University do a similar degree in two years, is they don't stop, they just keep going. 

If you think about this, it's totally logical. You could have day and night shifts, with overlapping lectures Monday to Friday and Wednesday to Sunday. Combine real time webcasts, like those done by Columbia University in New York, with face to face lectures and tutorials, assignments, essays and online tests.

Edited to further add: Someone has pointed out how acceleration may work at the University of Canterbury (eg) a student with direct access to Chemistry second year, by virtue of their Year 13 grades from high school, can complete an honours degree in chemistry in 3 years.