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  • ENZ Regional Partners Workshop lands in Queenstown

    This was ENZ’s twelfth Regional Partners Workshop, coordinated under ENZ’s Regional Partnership Programme which aims to ensure that regions throughout New Zealand increasingly share the benefits of international education.

    Jo Keane, ENZ Business Development Manager, said the workshops are a chance to bring together regional representatives of international education to receive professional development training and learn the latest news and updates from ENZ.

    “ENZ is committed to the development of international education in the regions. We work closely with our Regional Partners across 15 regions to grow value, deliver an excellent student experience and create global citizenship opportunities – in line with the goals of the International Education Strategy.

    “Of course, our regional partners need to ensure their local communities see the benefits of international education too. For this reason, a key focus of the latest workshop was empowering our regional representatives to ‘Tell the Story’ of international education in their communities, with a session on news media and communication skills.”

    The group also heard presentations from representatives of Destination Queenstown, Queenstown Resort College and Queenstown Lakes District Council on the opportunities and challenges for the region across tourism, infrastructure and international education.

    Representatives from the Secondary International Education Business Association (SIEBA) also presented, focussing on partnership with the regions.

  • Recipients of the 2026 New Zealand – China Tripartite Partnership Fund

    The recipients are:

    • Lincoln University, with Beijing Forestry University and Yunnan Agricultural University, on national park landscape management
    • Lincoln University, with China Agricultural University and Inner Mongolia Agricultural University, on research in carbon emissions
    • University of Canterbury, with Shanghai Normal University and Qufu Normal University, on digital leadership in early childhood education.

    For over 20 years, the New Zealand – China Tripartite Partnership Fund has supported researcher-led collaboration through a distinctive three-way structure, connecting New Zealand universities with multiple Chinese partners to build academic linkages and enable knowledge exchange.

    The Tripartite Partnership Programme has delivered tangible education outcomes, including contributing to recently approved joint institutes and programmes involving the University of Canterbury and Lincoln University, and their Chinese university partners.

    Lincoln University’s joint education programme on National Parks management with Beijing Forestry University was recently approved by China Ministry of Education. 

    Announcing new joint education programme focusing on national parks management | Lincoln University

    University of Canterbury’s cooperation in the early childhood education field with Shanghai Normal University has evolved from a tripartite research collaboration into a joint education institute.  

    UC advances NZ-China education opportunities | UC

    Outcomes from the 2025 Fund recipients

    The 2025 Tripartite Partnership Fund recipients completed their projects in May 2026, reporting strong progress in academic collaboration and student mobility, along with joint publication submissions.

    One project, led by Associate Professor Fiona Ell from the University of Auckland, focused on preparing future teachers in mathematics and science through comparative study and exchange between New Zealand and China. 

    The project delivered three key outcomes:

    • completion of comparative policy analysis on mathematics and science teacher education policies in both countries
    • examining the signature teacher education pedagogies in both countries to learn about new ways to prepare teachers
    • delivery of reciprocal exchange visits, enabling in-person observation of school and university practice in both countries. 

    Left: Associate Professor Fiona Ell and Jingjing Liang from the University of Auckland visited research partners at Hangzhou Normal University and Capital Normal University in October to November 2025 as the first reciprocal exchange.
    Right: During Associate Professor Yiling Yao and Dr Sisi Han’s visit to Auckland in February 2026, the group visited Matipo Primary School to observe a Year 3 mathematics class.

  • The global citizens helping connect New Zealand with the world

    The future looks like arts and crafts. In a room at the TSB Arena in Wellington in August, the Festival for the Future expo floor is packed with things to paint and fold and stick and make. At a stall for the Sustainable Development Goals I pick up a wooden bead representing the 11th goal – sustainable cities and communities – and paint it carefully orange, ready to be strung into a bright pattern with everyone else’s. As a shameless eavesdropper, this is my natural habit. I listen to two people discuss 3D printing, while another group sip ethical soda on colourful beanbags and chat about responsible investment.

    At the Education New Zealand Manapou ki te Ao (ENZ) stall people line up for coffee while filling out forms about their experience of “global citizenship”. ENZ is the crown entity responsible for international education in Aotearoa. In 2019, pre-Covid-19, there were over 100,000 international students in New Zealand, studying mostly at tertiary institutions, but also at primary and secondary schools. Since 2013, more than 2,400 New Zealanders have been awarded Prime Minister’s Scholarships to study in Asia or Latin America.

    "Global citizenship is an essential part of New Zealand’s international education strategy, and these inbound and outbound students represent an opportunity to create global connections, research links and broad partnerships for New Zealand."

    ENZ partnered with the Festival for the Future to discuss what international education and global citizenship looks like in the unique confines of 2021. For Carla Rey Vasquez, ENZ’s global citizenship manager, the strategy’s value in an era of limited travel is the gift of a dual perspective to complex problems. It is also an opportunity to help New Zealanders understand the nuanced and mutual benefits of international education and the long-term relationships it creates with people around the world.

    “Our world is characterized by complex issues. Global citizenship offers an opportunity to find ways to navigate and respond to those issues through shared understanding,” she says. “It’s about realising the value and power of your identity and knowledge, but also acknowledging the potential of others’ experience and perspectives on the world.”

    This is a worldview that Rey Vasquez says is built on a relationship of local belonging and responsibility to our people as well as people across the world. International education is an essential way New Zealand builds that bond with the rest of the world, bringing diverse people, organisations and countries together.

    Vasquez, a former international student herself, knows how transformational international education can be for both the student and New Zealand.

    “It brings the world to our home, if we can harness the cultural value that international students bring to New Zealand we will all grow as global learners,” she says.

    ENZ sees global citizenship as a way to bring shared understanding and learning between countries and cultures. Marc Doesburg, senior innovation advisor at ENZ, believes it offers new perspectives on the world, and a chance to question one’s own understanding. 

    “We give young people an opportunity to critique [their cultures] by going overseas, to see that things are done differently here.”

    International students are a significant source of income for education institutions and the New Zealand economy, contributing more than $5b in 2019. But for both ENZ and international students the benefits students bring New Zealand are far broader than a GDP injection.

    “I don’t want us just to be seen as bringing money – we bring culture, we bring international values…we want to know local people,” says Claire Lu, a Taiwanese student studying politics and international relations at Victoria University of Wellington.

    That works both ways – studying abroad was an “invaluable” experience for New Zealander Anna de Boer, who studied Mandarin in Shanghai as part of a Prime Minister’s Scholarship and has been back to China several times since. De Boer now works with international students at Victoria University of Wellington. She wants to reframe the narrative that international students “come here, take something, then go back to their home country.”

    There’s a huge benefit in how international students can take a piece of New Zealand home with them, and leave an important part of their own story behind in Aotearoa too, says De Boer. This builds long term relationships that have value far beyond the years they spend studying.

    This was originally published on The Spinoff as part of a content partnership between Education New Zealand and The Spinoff.

  • Teaching English in Korea

    The temperature drop of over 30 degrees, didn’t deter Christine Black, teacher from James Hargest School in Invercargill from enjoying a unique opportunity to teach a week-long English programme sponsored by the South Korean government.  

    Black and two other teachers from New Zealand, Elizabeth Henry from Kowhai Intermediate School, in Auckland and Patsy Richardson, from Te Puke School, in the Bay of Plenty were selected to teach the English programme in South Korea.  

    The teachers were selected through an application process facilitated by ENZ to teach 15 students from throughout South Korea about New Zealand culture and history at the JEI education centre in Cheonan from 19-23 December 2022.  

    Through the English Language programme funded by the Korean government, New Zealand teachers were invited to Korea to support Korean school students from rural agricultural backgrounds to extend their conversational and speaking skills. The students also engaged in hands-on classroom activities that included mini science experiments.  

    The one-off 2022 Korea-New Zealand English Language Training Program was sponsored by EPIS, an agency tasked by the Korean government to support English language training for Korean students and facilitated by Korea FAO Association.  

    Teacher Christine Black leads the students in an experiment making slime. Photo credit: Korea FAO Association

    Yoon Cho, Senior Manager of Korea FAO Association, said it was an experience the students will never forget.  

    “Well before the teachers arrived, they could feel their passion and enthusiasm for meeting students from rural areas in Korea. I would like to thank the New Zealand teachers who took time to visit Korea at the end of December, especially Christmas week, and made meaningful memories for middle and high school students in Korean rural areas,” Cho said. 

    School teacher Christine Black was excited for how her first visit to South Korea broadened her understanding of Korean culture. 

    “It was exciting to travel there to broaden my understanding of this culture as my high school has international students from South Korea. This definitely was a win-win situation to be able to travel somewhere new to me and also share our New Zealand culture.” 

    As part of the programme, each teacher was responsible for a couple of aspects of New Zealand. Black was responsible for sharing the life of a New Zealand high school student and introduce the different regions of New Zealand and their unique characteristics.  

    For Patsy Richardson, a teacher at Te Puke School, it was her first time in South Korea, and she introduced waiata to her homeroom group.  

    I chose to teach the waiata ‘Tutira mai ngā iwi,’ with actions. We had three 30-minute slots in which to learn it and they had it perfected. Now whether that is because they are willing and diligent students, or I am such a fantastic teacher, is to be debated. The students also performed the waiata at the closing ceremony [for the programme] and it was a great display of cross-cultural connections,” Richardson said.  

    Despite the short time spent together, it was a great opportunity for the students and teachers to build relationships and cultural understanding between the two countries. The students in Korea were enthusiastic about speaking in English and enjoyed learning some Kiwi slang.  

    An intermediate school student, Kyungdon Joo, said he studied English and made new friends during the training which gave him a new perspective. “Now I have another goal: To go to New Zealand and learn more about New Zealand.” 

    For Elizabeth Henry, a teacher from the Auckland region, the English teaching programme was more than the opportunity to enhance language skills. Henry recognised the importance of being a cultural ambassador as she was one of the first New Zealanders the students had ever met.  

    “I was prepared to bring my best teaching practice to this opportunity prior to the trip not realising that once in Korea, the picture of my purpose there was so much bigger than I had anticipated. Not only did I bring my very best teaching practice to all the students I taught, my mindset changed, thinking one day these children will share this experience with their family and friends.”  

    Final reflections 

    Black reflected on the opportunity it provided for the New Zealand teachers as well as students.  

    “I think it is really important for teachers to grab opportunities like this, especially as there is more and more diversity in our classrooms, and it is important to get first-hand experience of other cultures.”  

    Henry summed up the English language teaching experience well. She hopes that whenever the students think of New Zealand “a happy memory pops into their mind from this experience.” 

    Students present their destination marketing posters Photo credit: Patsy Richardson

    Education New Zealand Manapou ki te Ao would like to thank North Asia CAPE and regional education bodies for sharing the opportunity with contacts. This was a one-off overseas short-term teaching programme organised by the South Korean government. ENZ will continue to share these opportunities as they arise with education cooperation partners through the CAPE and regional education channels. 

  • COVID-19: How ENZ is communicating to students, agents and providers

    On our own channels, ENZ’s communications with students are focused on the following streams of work:

    1. Keeping students updated with official government information about the COVID-19 situation in New Zealand, and how this affects them
    2. Supporting international students who are in New Zealand through this difficult time, with content to keep them connected and support their wellbeing.
    3. Keeping New Zealand top of mind for prospective students and providing information about studying here, so we are well positioned to recruit new students when the crisis period is over and borders reopen.

    Agents are a key audience for ENZ, as they are often a student’s first port of call when an issue comes up. Since February 2020, AgentLab has been our primary information channel for communicating with agents updates on COVID-19. The platform has 2,697 users, and has seen a surge in registrations (733 new) in the past three weeks alone.

    We recognise that New Zealand education providers are also communicating with their international students regularly. ENZ hosts a dedicated COVID-19 page for education institutions and stakeholders, and has developed messaging for international students at both a tertiary and secondary school level that providers should feel free to recut for their own channels.

    Finally, ENZ is communicating regularly with institutions and peak bodies through regular meetings and email updates. 

    ​What we’re doing on our student web platforms

    NauMai NZ is our central information for hub for international students in New Zealand. Here, students can find out how to access healthcare, open a bank account, find a rental property, and more.

    Since February, NauMai NZ has hosted a dedicated COVID-19 page that is regularly updated with key information relevant to international students.

    Beyond immediate information updates, our content focus on NauMai NZ for the next few months will be on creating new content to support international students throughout their time in self-isolation and beyond. Wellbeing will be a key theme, as well as helping students stay connected through sharing their stories.

    NauMai NZ COVID-19 information page

    The Study in New Zealand website has a banner at the top and midway down the page that directs to the NauMai NZ COVID-19 info page.

    Tohu the chatbot is available (who lives on the Study in New Zealand website, NauMai NZ and on Facebook Messenger) to answer a number of COVID-19 related queries.

    What we’re doing on student-facing social media

    Our strategy for our student social media pages is first and foremost to ensure COVID-19 information is easy to find for anyone who visits our social pages.  Across our student-facing Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Facebook Group and Weibo pages, we have ‘pinned’ informative posts and links directing to the NauMai NZ COVID-19 page, for up-to-date, relevant information. On WeChat, we have a site tab with regular updated COVID-19 information.

    Over the coming weeks and months, our social media content will also focus primarily on supporting the wellbeing of current international students. We’ll be working with our Kiwi Ambassadors and other students to share their stories, experiences and tips, helping to keep students connected with each other.

    Student emails

    Most of the emails our marketing team sends out to students and prospective students are automated well in advance. It was therefore important for ENZ to review all of our emails to ensure they are relevant in the current national and international environment. 

    • We have paused all of our automated emails except enquiry emails that link prospective students through to institutions they are interested in.
    • We have emailed our current student and prospective student databases to acknowledge the situation and link them through to the NauMai NZ COVID-19 page.
      • Our key message here was that the safety and wellbeing of international students in New Zealand and New Zealand students who are overseas is our top priority at this time, and we look forward to welcoming new international students when borders reopen, and life starts getting back to normal.
    • We will be considering our ongoing automated email stream options over the coming weeks, and re-assessing any necessary content changes.

  • Survey shows that New Zealand is among top destinations for Brazilians who study abroad

    Belta’s annual survey, sponsored by Education New Zealand Manapou ki te Ao (ENZ), was conducted between December 2022 and April 2023 with 763 students and 317 international education agents from all regions of Brazil surveyed to assess their perceptions of international education. The survey results were shared at a recent event in Sao Paolo with dozens of agents and media attending, in person and virtually, to hear about the survey’s latest findings.  

    ENZ’s Market Development Manager in Brazil, Bruna de Natale, delivered a short speech ahead of the results release. She said it was positive to see so much interest in the release of the survey results, especially when the results revealed that New Zealand continues to rank strongly as an international education destination amongst Brazilian students. 

    “In this most recent survey, New Zealand moved to seventh position on the list of top education destinations sought by Brazilians who studied abroad, compared to before the Covid-19 pandemic when it was in eighth place. The main reason driving country choice for the students surveyed is the quality of life – New Zealand ranks very well for the quality of life, education, and the protection of civil rights.  

    “The quality of teaching is another reason given by those surveyed when choosing New Zealand and 60% of participants rated the quality of our English schools and language programmes as good or excellent. It is fantastic to see that New Zealand continues to attract attention as a quality international education destination and it is certainly on the radar as a desired destination for future exchange students,” said Bruna. 

    Of the international education agents who were surveyed, 52.9% reported that the demand for students interested in New Zealand has remained stable since the borders reopened, while 20.6% recorded growth in interest. This group projects that the numbers of Brazilian students travelling to New Zealand will return to pre-pandemic levels in 2023 and 2024, with the highest flows expected for the first (35.3%) and second quarters of 2024 (32.4%), with demand increasing gradually from the first quarter of 2023. 

    For a copy of the full survey in English, please email belta@belta.org.br.  

    Bruna delivering an introductory speech at an event which released the results from Belta’s survey on international education.

  • Meet the Team: Matt Penney

    Could you please outline your own role and the role of the Corporate Services team?

    I head up our Finance and IT teams and sit on the leadership team. I am a member of the Audit & Risk committee and chair the Digital Steering group.

    Finance is responsible for paying our invoices, keeping accounting records, business partnering, helping to set budgets and reforecasting those as things change. We do a lot of reporting and work with tax people, auditors and do other forms of compliance. Audit NZ has awarded us their highest rating for the past three years.

    IT provides many of the essential tools, technology, and training for us to be able to do our job. ENZ is putting in place one of the most, if not the most, advanced IT-managed cloud computing solution within the public sector. 

    We operate in many different jurisdictions around the world, so we face many different challenges at a local level. We are also part of the NZ Inc government sector and there is a lot of knowledge and services that we can and do share with each other.

    How has COVID-19 impacted your team’s work, and what work do you have ahead of you with the recovery?

    In the current environment, we have helped to reconfigure ENZ’s work programme. We have supported the identification of new activities that support the international education sector, connect with the international students in New Zealand, and gather intelligence about the markets for New Zealand providers. I think we have all gone through a reboot the last few months and as is often said, “we should never let a good crisis go to waste” and miss the chance to make positive change.

    In terms of my team’s work programme, that’s actually full steam ahead. We have nearly completed our IT-managed cloud computing solution, desk phones have been replaced with soft phone telephony, we are trialling updated Zoom hardware, and putting in new, improved global managed internet connections. We are also go-live shortly with a new finance system to ensure ENZ staff can spend less time on administration and more time on value-add activities.

    Can you tell me a bit about your professional background?

    I belong to the New Zealand professional bodies for Directors and Chartered Accountants. and have 25 years of business experience in a mixture of private and public sector roles. Six years of that experience was gained in the UK and Ireland. I really enjoyed my time working overseas.

    I joined ENZ in 2014; this is my first government agency role.

    Accounting is a transferable skill, so I have had an interesting journey across many different sectors. I have toured around power stations, air traffic control towers, coal mines – who says accounting is boring!

     Matt (about to receive a hand up) competing in an adventure race in China. 

    What do you like to do in your spare time?

    My interests are built around my family; I am married with 11 and 8-year-old boys. I like my travel – one of the benefits of COVID is that my leave balance is now positive again!

    Once upon a time we backpacked our way around Asia and Europe and did a truck tour across southern Africa. I have been to something like 60 countries, but these days we do more family-friendly things like go to Ohope, Rarotonga and the South Island ski fields.

    I have done the annual Coast to Coast race across the South Island four times and Ironman NZ once. In the past couple of years I’ve tried adventure racing in China where we’ve won enough prize money to cover the costs of getting there. We raced in Wulong and I could not go all that way without popping in to see Felix in our nearest ENZ office in Guangzhou.

  • Thirty groups awarded PM's Scholarships for Asia and Latin America

    The successful groups were announced by Education Minister Chris Hipkins today, and mark the outcome of the first round of the scholarships since they were paused due to COVID-19.

    Education New Zealand Manapou ki te Ao (ENZ) congratulates all the successful recipients, who include a marae, non-profit organisation TupuToa, six of New Zealand's eight universities, Te Pūkenga, and a number of private training establishments.

    A full list of recipients is available here.

    Chris Hipkins also announced that the scholarships will open for individual applications this month. Applications will be open from 18 July - 31 August 2022. More information, including how to apply, is available here.

    About the scholarships

    The Prime Minister's Scholarships for Asia and Latin America are funded by the New Zealand Government and administered by Education New Zealand Manapou ki te Ao.

    Since 2013, the scholarships have supported more than 2,400 New Zealanders on learning experiences in Asia and Latin America.

     

  • From the CE: Honouring our commitment to international students

    The Government has announced today that a new border exception will allow 250 international PhD and postgraduate students to enter New Zealand and continue their studies.

    Read Minister of Education Chris Hipkins’ official release.

    This is a positive first step on the path to recovery and is consistent with the Recovery Plan for International Education.

    It is recognition that international education is important to New Zealand and will play a vital role in the country’s rebuild and recovery from COVID-19. Prior to COVID, international education was New Zealand’s fifth-largest export earner, earning $5 billion a year and supporting around 45,000 jobs.

    Moreover, the international students included in this group have had their postgraduate study or research disrupted by COVID-19, and cannot complete it due to the practical nature of their course. They have made a commitment to New Zealand, and that’s something we want to honour.

    ENZ’s next step is to work with tertiary providers as they identify and select eligible students, and to continue to work with other government agencies to ensure a safe and considered process is developed for these students to enter the country.

    ENZ is looking forward to further border exceptions that will benefit as many providers and students as possible, when it is safe to do so.

    We will also have work underway to make sure the students entering New Zealand receive a warm welcome and have the information they need to succeed.

    I am very proud of the manaakitanga that New Zealand education providers have been demonstrating throughout the COVID-19 crisis this year.

    Please continue to encourage your students to sign up to NauMai NZ, our digital home for students who have chosen to study in New Zealand. Over the COVID-19 crisis, it has continually been updated and expanded with information international students need to know.

    In the early hours of Saturday, 2 October, ENZ’s NauMai NZ was awarded a Highly Commended in the Student Support category at The PIEoneer Awards. We are delighted to be recognised for this work alongside such a varied list of international organisations.

    You can read more about NauMai NZ in this issue of E-News.

    He waka eke noa (we’re all in this together).

    Grant McPherson

    Chief Executive

    Manapou ki te Ao

  • Introducing the AgentLab WeChat mini programme

    As AgentLab is a web-based platform with English content, it needed a separate programme for Chinese audiences. The new mini programme not only uses Chinese language, but it also offers a localised user experience more suitable for this group.

    “Education agents continue to have a crucial role in ensuring that international students and their parents have accurate information about what New Zealand, as a study destination can offer. Especially in China, agents are the main interface between education providers, students, and students’ parents,” ENZ Director – Greater China, Miranda Herbert says.

    The agent landscape in China is extensive. The biggest agencies have around 50 branches in the mainland, with different agencies having particular regional strengths. Because agents run their own events – both B2B and with students – ENZ supports their activities rather than running our own ENZ Recognised Agency fairs.

    AgentLab is ENZ’s dedicated communications portal for education agents, providing them with the training and resources they need to best promote New Zealand as an international study destination.

    It has proven to be a very effective way to support agents during these uncertain, fast-changing times. There are now close to 5,000 users on the platform, which is a 60 percent increase since March 2020. This year alone ENZ conducted almost 50 webinars (some region-specific) through AgentLab, and shared regular updates via news feeds, direct messages, and the COVID-19 FAQs page.

    Access 新西兰留学顾问计划 on WeChat, or use the QR code below:

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