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Diplomas recognised by Chinese authorities
Vice Minister of Education Dr Hao Ping and Secretary for Education Peter Hughes signed the Arrangement on Mutual Recognition of Academic Degrees in Higher Education between the Government of New Zealand and the Government of the People’s Republic of China at the 8th Joint Working Group on Education and Training.
The Arrangement, first signed in 2002, was updated and re-signed to take into account the range of changes to the New Zealand Qualifications Framework and related settings that have occurred since 2002.
In a new move, two and three year diplomas from New Zealand were also added to the list of qualifications officially recognised by Chinese authorities.
The changes will see greater recognition of academic qualifications between New Zealand and China, making it easier for students to further their studies in either country.
“This increases New Zealand’s attractiveness at a study destination and expands opportunities for New Zealanders looking to study in China,” said Tertiary Education, Skills and Employment Minister Steven Joyce when announcing the signing.
When Chinese students return to China after their studies, they get their foreign qualifications verified by the China Service Center for Scholarly Exchange (CSCSE). The updates to the Arrangement ensure that a greater number of students receive the appropriate recognition, enabling them to gain official comparability of their qualifications within the Chinese system.
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Flying Kiwi makes return flight
Early in the new year, our Santiago-based Market Development Manager Javiera Visedo received a surprise visit from a familiar face – Flying Kiwi Catherine Lee. Catherine was one of the first group of seven Flying Kiwis to study in Santiago in 2013 and she had come back for a three week holiday in Chile to spend time with her host family.
“Although obviously my visit as one of the Flying Kiwis was very advantageous from a learning perspective, the friendships and bonds I have formed with my host family and classmates transcend language barriers and distance,” said Catherine.
Flying Kiwis is an ENZ initiative to send New Zealand secondary school students studying Spanish to Santiago for three weeks to attend school alongside Chilean students. The programme was developed in response to the Chilean Government-sponsored scholarship programme Penguins without Borders which sees Chilean students coming to New Zealand to study.
Catherine was in year 13 at Northcote College when she was chosen as a Flying Kiwi. At the time, her Spanish was advanced and she gave a speech for the welcome event at the Ambassador’s Residence.
With one daughter of their own, Catherine’s host family treated her like a second daughter. They loved the experience so much that they hosted another Flying Kiwi last year – they say now they have three daughters.
These days, Catherine is in her second year at the University of Auckland studying towards a Bachelor of Arts majoring in Spanish.
“Travelling to a Spanish-speaking country and learning more about the language definitely influenced my decision to study translation and interpreting at a tertiary level. I could see myself having a career as a translator – I knew that was what I wanted to do with my life,” said Catherine.
“I will definitely have an ongoing connection to Chile – I already miss my friends and host family! One day I would like to do another exchange to a Chilean university, or even live there for a while.
Several of Catherine’s Chilean schoolmates have plans to travel and study in New Zealand. Her host sister is investigating visas to study and work in New Zealand for a year.
“Even my host family are considering moving to New Zealand, as they have heard wonderful things about living there.”
Javiera said that Catherine now speaks beautiful Spanish and her story demonstrates the success of the programme.
“It’s great to see the long-term results of these initiatives. It makes us appreciate even more what we do and most importantly why we do it,” said Javiera.
Bottom left photo (Left to right): Catherine’s host sister, Javiera Jimenez Ortiz; Catherine; and friend Rubi Ruiz Vallejos
Bottom right photo (Left to right): Catherine’s host mother, Elena; Javiera Visedo (ENZ Market Development Manager); Catherine; and host sister, Javiera, at the New Zealand Embassy in Santiago -
80 more ‘Penguins’ to visit
Education New Zealand will contact all eligible schools in the coming weeks to seek and confirm interest to participate in the programme. The scheme’s criteria stipulates candidate schools must be co-educational, non-religious and located within a close radius of the city centres in Auckland, Christchurch and Wellington.
The group will be the fourth to study in New Zealand through the scholarship programme, which aims to expand the international outlook of young Chilean students and improve their English language skills.
Known as ‘Penguins’ because of their distinctive black and white uniforms, 237 Chilean students have studied in New Zealand since the programme began in 2013.
When announcing the programme from Chile last week Tertiary Education, Skills and Employment Minister Steven Joyce said the visit will enable more Chilean students to experience Kiwi life, and that more New Zealanders will learn about Chile by hosting a student or studying alongside the Penguins.
“International students make a significant social, cultural and economic contribution to New Zealand while they’re here and remain connected as ambassadors for New Zealand when they return home.”
Mr Joyce has been visiting Chile, Brazil and Colombia for the past eight days, leading a delegation of university representatives to the region to deepen education and trade links.
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Student voices celebrate the NZ-ASEAN relationship
ENZ has been running Student Voice since 2012, providing a platform for international students to share their experiences and views on studying in New Zealand.
This year’s event was jointly run by ENZ and the MFAT, and domestic students were also invited to take part, in recognition of the 40th anniversary of diplomatic relations between New Zealand and ASEAN.
Thirty international students representing all 10 ASEAN countries joined with the 10 New Zealand students who were recipients of the Prime Minister’s Scholarships for Asia, Understanding South East Asia programme. Together, the students took part in an interactive two-day programme aimed at better understanding the student experience. They heard from sector experts including Simon Chu from the University of Otago around the importance of alumni networks; Lester Khoo from Auckland University of Technology on how a New Zealand education can launch careers in ASEAN; and Jimmy Walsh from Beca on the value of ASEAN-NZ links in business.
The students also had the opportunity to talk informally about their experiences. We will share more on this in a later edition of E-news, but here are some of the comments for starters:
“Only when you are out of your comfort zone will you understand and learn many things, not just about your degree, but everything. It’s hard to not fall in love with New Zealand."
“Studying in New Zealand has opened up my soul. The past two years at the University of Otago had a significant impact on my character building. The University of Otago has moulded me into a more expressive, responsible, and confident person. New Zealand has also taught me to seize the opportunities whenever you have a chance because you will never know where that opportunity might lead you.”
My participation in ASEAN Student Voice 2015 only reinforced my belief that studying in NZ gives me that well-rounded academic experience that I can take home to enrich my contribution to Indonesia's development."
A real community has built up around this year’s Student Voice, and participating students set up a Facebook page to keep their connections going.
The programme culminated in an evening reception attended by around 100 people, including Hon Steven Joyce, the students and their host institutions, officials on the English Language Training for Officials programme, Heads of ASEAN missions and government representatives as well as people from ENZ, MFAT and the Asia New Zealand Foundation.
Students from Wainuiomata High School’s Kapa Haka Group, Te Tira Whakaau, brought New Zealand’s powerful cultural history alive with a performance at the reception. Te Tira Whakaau finished first overall in the regional secondary school Te Awakairangi ki Wairarapa Kapa Haka competition last month.
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Hawke’s Bay groups collaborate for growth
The group of education providers and partner agencies are making sure their “shop front” is as attractive and welcoming as possible. E-News caught up with Education Hawke’s Bay Business Development Manager, Steph Kennard, on the approach.
Who makes up Education Hawke’s Bay?
Education Hawke’s Bay is a voluntary member organisation made up of local government, schools, our ITP and PTEs. We were formed approximately two years ago with the common goal of doubling the value of international students to the region by 2025.
What was the motivation behind the re-brand and new website?
We wanted to create an identity for Education Hawke’s Bay that served multiple purposes, with a brand that would give our members a sense of belonging. We wanted to showcase Hawke’s Bay as a study destination at the same time as promoting the special characteristics of each education provider. By developing a website, and removing the dependence upon printed brochures, we have reduced our overall costs.
Based on this brief, we developed a new brand called ‘Learning Hawke’s Bay’ and new website www.learninghawkesbay.nz. The use of the word ‘Learning’ represents both the study and leisure experience – students come here to study in a classroom, but they will also gain experience – learn – outside of it, through our culture and local tourism.
Our logo operates on several levels – acting as a pointer to direct the viewer, resembling an open book and also an open laptop. This works well with our ‘Learning’ brand.
The website works as a stand-alone site, but can also be incorporated within individual members’ marketing collateral. Our website uses large format imagery to “paint a picture” of Hawke’s Bay as pictures require little, or no, translation! These images have been chosen to appeal to both students and parents alike, and regardless of country of origin.
Our website ensures we can respond quickly to queries and can be updated within moments.
What part does the rebrand and new website play in your overall strategy?
The website and brand are an integral component of our strategy and give us the tools to promote Hawke’s Bay to students overseas. Building the website has meant we can work more smartly on our international promotions. The next steps are to incorporate a social media presence and build on our communication plan.
Are there any particular successes or learnings you’d like to share from the rebranding exercise?
It was important to ensure that our design, including colour and brand, represented our members and was functional. We also required the website to be built with an easy content management system so that we could make changes quickly in-house, without incurring extra costs. The framework also needed to be flexible enough to enable us to develop the website and make additions to pages without the need for a full re-design.
You recently took part in a regional cluster pilot with Hastings District Council. How has this gone?
The Agent tour was our first real taste of regional clustering in practice. It certainly had its challenges as each member had a different view of which country we should be targeting. In the end we settled on Japan, which meant that not all members participated.
The other project in the pilot, is to develop a revenue monitoring framework. This is still in the planning, as it requires data which the Education Hawke’s Bay team can’t yet access. Our stakeholders are keen to know just what revenue is generated by our international students, so we want to ensure accuracy.
What part has ENZ’s Regional Partnership Programme played in the development and operationalisation of your strategy?
The support and advice from the ENZ Business Development team has been hugely appreciated, as it can be quite isolating being based in a region and trying to please each of the members. Of course, the financial support has enabled us to employ someone to help us deliver on our regional strategic goals for growth.
Is there anything else you’d like to add?
Our region has just taken part in a poll which proposed that all five councils amalgamate. The proposal was turned down by the community. Although this has been challenging for our region in general terms, the regional education cluster we have established is a great example of how collaboration among members from both Hastings and Napier can work!
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Pathway visa announced
This is great news for our industry and one of the priority actions identified in the international education industry strategic roadmap developed in 2014.
The pathway student visa will allow international students to undertake up to three consecutive programmes of study with selected education providers on a single visa that is valid for up to five years. A pathway programme can be offered by a single provider, or by a group of providers. For example, a student could obtain a pathway visa to study for three consecutive years at a school, or obtain a visa to undertake a year of study at an English language institution, progress to a year-long foundation programme, and follow that with a three-year degree programme.
Over 500 primary, secondary and tertiary institutions have been invited to participate in the 18 month pilot on the basis that they have a student visa application approval rate of 90 percent or higher for the 2014/15 financial year. A list of participating New Zealand education providers is available on the Immigration New Zealand (INZ) website.
The 18 month pilot period started on 7 December and will enable INZ to evaluate pilot outcomes, such as student transition rates from the first to the second programme of study and how well the arrangements between education providers are working.
Find out more about the key conditions and features of the pathway visa on the Immigration New Zealand website here.
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Education New Zealand has another successful year in Japan
The series began with a reception for the 30th anniversary of the Auckland-Fukuoka sister city relationship. Sir Bob Harvey from Auckland Council and Mr Soichiro Takashima, Mayor of Fukuoka City, were among the 120 guests who attended to celebrate the friendship and education exchange. The group also enjoyed a powerful haka performance by 20 students from Fukuoka’s Seiryo High School, who visited Auckland Grammar School in August this year for the Game On English Rugby programme.
While in Fukuoka, ENZ held an education fair with exhibitions from 30 New Zealand providers and organisations. The fair had more than 300 visitors – many of whom queued to speak to New Zealand representatives about their study options. ENZ’s Senior Market Development Manager – Japan, Misa Pitt, said the interest was not surprising, given the variety of New Zealand education programmes on show.
Education fair in Fukuoka
A second fair was also held in Tokyo, with a record number of over 600 visitors, followed by an education seminar with over 100 Japanese agents, schools and tertiary institutions.“While our competitors’ fairs tend to focus on one particular sector, we have an advantage by offering a wide range of innovative programmes from all sectors,” said Misa Pitt.
The interest in the seminar reflects an increase in engagement from Japanese institutions in international education – as well as the Japanese government’s internationalisation policy, intended to support their forthcoming sports hosting duties.
“With the 2019 Rugby World Cup and 2020 Olympics coming up, more Japanese students are interested in programmes that combine English and professional training in sports, tourism and hospitality,” said Misa Pitt.
Misa also revealed that the debut involvement of the Schools International Education Business Association (SIEBA, the peak body for schools in the international education space) in Japan increased New Zealand’s credibility in market, particularly in relation to pastoral care.
“With the new Code of Practice introduced in July this year, I believe SIEBA will play a key role in connecting New Zealand secondary schools with Japanese agents and institutions.”
Japan’s event series concluded with an alumni reception in Tokyo, with special guests including New Zealand Ambassador to Japan, Stephen Payton, and Michael Leitch, a Christchurch native who, after studying in Japan, now plays for the Japanese national rugby team. Michael gave a moving speech on the similarities between New Zealand and Japanese culture, as well as the importance of overseas education in building character for young people.
Education fair in Tokyo.
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Wellington International Students Excellence Awards showcase the value of international education
Established in 2016, the Wellington International Student Excellence Awards, held by WellingtonNZ, recognise high-achieving international students based in the Wellington region.
Awardees included Academic Excellence Award winner and Whitireia NZ/WelTec student Matthew Hitchener from England, who was honoured for his project introducing pelvic binders to paramedic services in Wellington. Pelvic binders are commonly used overseas to compress the pelvis to prevent bleeding in those with a pelvic fracture. After a successful trial on a LifeFlight helicopter, the binders will soon be launched on all Wellington Free Ambulances.
WellingtonNZ Workforce and Business Growth Manager, Matt Carrere, says the awards show both what the Wellington region can offer international students, as well as the vast contribution students make to the region in return.
“Wellington is an interconnected, social and diverse region where international students learn and thrive. It’s unsurprising that many choose to remain here after their studies to pursue a career.”
The awards also recognised individuals and organisations that work to welcome international students to the region.
PhD candidate at Victoria University of Wellington, Anna-Marie White, received the Internationalisation Award – Domestic Student for organising regular PhD writing workshops (or ‘bootcamps’) with international students.
She was nominated by a group of PhD candidates from around the world, who said: “Anna has expressed her manaakitanga to her international friends and has increased our feeling of home, our love of New Zealand, and our passion for our research. Bootcamp will always be the highlight of our PhD studies, and Anna is a member of the Wellington community that you can be incredibly proud of.”
This year’s Internationalisation Workplace Award went to Wellington tech company MarginFuel for offering employment and internships to 20 international students and graduates.
“MarginFuel offers the students opportunities to further their careers, and in return we have found the students are intelligent, hard-working and add a rich layer to our team culture,” CEO Andrew Pascoe says. “New hires especially comment on how culturally diverse we are, and how this adds so much to the organisation.”
For the full list of winners, visit the WellingtonNZ website.
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PTE English for Speakers of Other Language (ESOL) Provision Fund
The $1.5 million fund is designed to help English language schools impacted by the border closure to international students.
The funding was announced in July by Minister of Education Chris Hipkins as part of the Government’s $51.6 million Recovery Plan for International Education.
The PTE ESOL Fund is part of the first workstream, which seeks to stabilise the sector while borders remain closed. Read more about the Recovery Plan.
The funding aims to help increase demand for English language training, to be met by English Language Schools. It will also help with upskilling and improving the employability of New Zealanders with English language needs, including migrant partners and dependents of New Zealanders.
The fund is being implemented by the Tertiary Education Commission (TEC).
Eligibility
To be eligible for the PTE ESOL Provision Fund, your organisation must hold a Category 1 External Evaluation and Review (EER) rating from NZQA as at 1 July 2020.
Teaching enabled by this fund may only be provided to Category A and B learners. All learners must be in New Zealand.
Read more details on eligbility
How to apply
Applications for the PTE ESOL Provision Fund are open now and will close at 5pm on Friday, 28 August.
To apply, you need to complete the form on the TEC website and send it through to the TEC Customer Group via email: customerservice@tec.govt.nz
Other considerations
For the full list of terms and conditions, including successful applicants’ reporting and monitoring requirements, refer to the TEC website.
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Massey links up with Dutch social scientists
Researchers from the Sociology of Development and Change group at Wageningen University in the Netherlands were hosted by Massey University’s School of People, Environment and Planning earlier this year.
Together, they created and signed The Mordor Accord (referencing the Lord of the Rings film scenery where it was signed) and developed a collaborative workplan addressing issues to do with the environment, food, political economy and development studies.
Massey Professor Glenn Banks, Head of the School of People, Environment and Planning, says the school jumped at the opportunity to work with Wageningen.
“Massey and Wageningen have been working together for a number of years but it is only recently that we started a discussion between social scientists at the two institutions,” he said.“The main objective of the collaboration is to kick-start joint teaching, research and grant development, and to help strengthen and broaden the relations between the two universities.
“We are also looking to gain from their strength in Latin America and Africa, where they do a lot of work. [In turn], they get a lot from us in the Pacific and Asia where they are looking to expand their research and are seeking networks and joint opportunities."In future, the partnership will translate into work programmes with joint publications, research grant development and applications, and staff and student visits and exchanges.
Some of these are already underway – a Massey University Sociology PhD student Stella Pennell is leaving in mid-year for a three-month visit to Wageningen as part of her study.
