AI licences and capability building for the tertiary sector
Tender Overview
About this tender
Overview The Tertiary Education Commission (TEC) is seeking commercially licensed, enterprise- or education-grade general-purpose generative AI services for staff and students across New Zealand's tertiary education institutions (TEIs), including universities, polytechnics and wānanga. The opportunity is based on potential access for up to approximately 420,000 staff and students. This figure is provided for evaluation and pricing purposes only and does not represent guaranteed uptake. Scope The scope includes: Provision of licensing, access and consumption capacity for generative AI services Implementation and capability building to support adoption of the services Broad access to advanced generative AI capabilities for teaching, learning, research and organisational use, including conversational AI, advanced reasoning and research, document and data analysis, multimodal capabilities, and the creation or use of AI assistants or agents Institution-wide deployment with appropriate administration, identity, security, privacy, governance, usage management and support Contractor Requirements Proposed services must provide materially greater capability, capacity and/or usage allowances than free, consumer or basic AI offerings Contract Terms and Conditions Commercial arrangements should be transparent and scalable, recognise aggregated sector demand, and support effective, responsible and sustained adoption across participating TEIs TEC intends to establish arrangements with one or more suppliers while preserving institutional choice Each eligible TEI will decide whether to participate and which provider, or providers, best meet its needs Enquiries Contact: Elaine Hiroki Phone: 044745654
How to respond to this tender
A strong tender response is clear, compliant, and backed by evidence. These steps apply to most Australian and New Zealand public tenders.
Read the requirements in full
Open the official listing and download the full tender pack. Note the response schedules, evaluation criteria, mandatory conditions, and the exact closing time and lodgement method.
Confirm you are eligible and it is worth bidding
Check licences, insurances, certifications, and any conformance requirements before you commit. A quick bid or no-bid decision saves days of wasted effort on a tender you cannot win.
Answer every criterion with evidence
Respond to each evaluation criterion directly and back your claims with concrete examples, referees, and past performance. Address the buyer’s stated need, not a generic capability statement.
Lodge early through the official portal
Submit through the source portal well before the deadline. Late or incorrectly lodged bids are almost always rejected, so leave time for uploads, portal errors, and last-minute questions.
