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• Flying Kiwis off to Chile

  “We’ve had a fantastic response to this year’s call for Flying Kiwi nominations. Forty one schools from all around New Zealand put forward some outstanding students for consideration – it’s been a quite a task to narrow it down to just seven students,” says Mr McPherson.

  “These senior Spanish students will spend three weeks in Santiago, going to school and living with Chilean families, immersing themselves in the language and the culture.” The Flying Kiwis programme was developed in response to the successful Chilean government-sponsored Penguins without Borders programme which sees Chilean students coming to New Zealand to study. “New Zealand is the first country to develop such an exchange with Chile and I am thrilled to be able to give our young people the chance to experience a taste of the Chilean way of life. “One of last year’s Flying Kiwis said he wasn’t very confident speaking Spanish before he went but the experience in Santiago helped him get top marks in end of year exams. And he plans to go back to South America in the future.

  “Flying Kiwis and Penguins without Borders create bonds between our countries and lifelong connections for both the Chilean and New Zealand students taking part,” says Mr McPherson. Almost 240 ‘Penguins’ have studied in New Zealand since January 2013. There are currently 96 Chilean young people studying at schools in Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch.

  Chile is a small but growing source of students for New Zealand and is our second largest source of students from South America, after Brazil. Chilean high school students value the opportunity to improve their English language skills as they experience a different culture and lifestyle living with New Zealand families.

• Thai travel advisory

  On 22 May 2014, the Royal Thai Army announced that the military had taken control of the government of Thailand. Some travel insurance policies may exclude cover during a coup d'etat and some cover provided under travel insurance policies may be invalid.

  The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade website, Safe Travel, provides the latest advisories on travel to Thailand.

  Education New Zealand is closely monitoring the situation in Thailand and will advise providers intending to participate in the New Zealand Education Fair on 20 September no later than 27 June whether this event will proceed.  

  Thailand is an important market for New Zealand, so we are also considering investing additional resources in digital channels to keep building awareness of New Zealand and support ENZ’s in-country Market Development Manager Nan Lertrasameewong.

  This includes increasing investment in search engine marketing and building our Facebook activity.

  If the planned event in September does not go ahead, Education New Zealand will also investigate running a virtual fair in Thailand and running a Thailand-specific campaign that directs enquiries to local agents.

  Nan has been working with many providers over the last few months to build relationships with education authorities and agents outside of Bangkok. We are seeing the results of that in the form of increased student numbers from Thailand to New Zealand, which grew 6 per cent in 2013. It is important to keep these relationships going through this time of uncertainty.  

  We encourage New Zealand providers to stay in touch with their Thai agents to maintain relationships.

• New social media launch in China

  “Last year our awareness levels in China grew 17 per cent between April and December,” says Kathryn McCarrison, General Manager Marketing and Channel Development.

  “With year-on-year growth in enrolments and student visa approvals from China, we want to continue building on this momentum in a top priority market for New Zealand.”

  The number of Chinese students studying at a New Zealand institution was up 3 per cent in 2013 on 2012 and this growth looks set to continue, with student visa approvals from January to March this year increasing by 24 per cent. 

  In August new ‘Study New Zealand’ Weibo and WeChat sites will launch, targeting a youth audience with fun, informative and interactive content about studying in New Zealand.

  Weibo is a microblogging platform, similar to both Twitter and Facebook, with more than 129 million monthly active users and more than 61 million average daily active users. Described by Forbes magazines as the world’s most powerful app, WeChat is a similarly popular mobile messaging app used by more than 350 million monthly active users.

  The China team will continue to support the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade Embassy’s Weibo account – supplying all-important content about bilateral education and research collaborations which demonstrate the depth of New Zealand’s strong education relationship with China. 

  “We are focused on profiling the dual opportunities New Zealand offers to China, as a high-quality and committed strategic education partner for our education products and services, and as an exceptional study destination,” says Alex Grace, Regional Director – Greater China.

  Whereas social media activity will reach a wide audience, recent campaign activity in China was targeted at those actively considering studying abroad, particularly at university level.  

  The campaign, which remains active until the end of July, matched prospective students to an agent to find out more information about studying in New Zealand.

  To date, over 6,500 prospective students have registered to find out more about New Zealand and these enquiries are being actively followed up by four agencies, who will in turn provide these qualified leads to New Zealand institutions. 

• Stephen Fleming flies New Zealand education flag in India

  Taking advantage of the former Black Caps captain’s massive profile in India, ENZ organised several awareness raising events fronted by Stephen Fleming to encourage Indian students to come to New Zealand.

  “Stephen has legendary status in India with the country’s love of cricket and Stephen’s own connections through the Indian Premier League where he is coach of the Chennai Super Kings. He is a very well-known and highly regarded personality and working with him to convey New Zealand’s education story has enabled us to reach a volume and quality of audience that might not have been as readily accessible otherwise,” said Ziena Jalil, ENZ Regional Director for South and South East Asia.

  “As a passionate advocate for quality education with a strong belief in the New Zealand education system, Stephen does a great job in exciting students, teachers and parents about what we have to offer.”

  Stephen was at all three Education New Zealand fairs in India in late August to interact with students and answer questions about studying in New Zealand. School and tertiary education institution visits in Mumbai, Chennai, Bangalore and New Delhi attracted more than a thousand potential students.

  We also secured a huge volume of quality media coverage as a result of Stephen’s promotional activities – one media briefing drew more than 50 journalists including several TV channels.

  An online campaign challenged students who were already thinking about study abroad options to take the next step and actively consider New Zealand as a study destination.

  Visitors who registered their interest in studying in New Zealand on the Education New Zealand campaign website were contacted by an education agent who provided them with more information about the courses, the criteria and support with the application process.

  By expressing interest, prospective students were automatically in to win an exclusive dinner date with Stephen Fleming. The lucky winners enjoyed a once in a lifetime experience with the cricketer who is regarded in India as one of the best captains the Black Caps have ever had.

  You can find photos of Stephen, the students and the fairs on our facebook page.

  While this campaign in India is over, New Zealand’s co-hosting the 2015 Cricket World Cup (CWC) also offers additional opportunities in India from an education perspective.

  If you are interested in learning more about the Stephen Fleming or CWC programmes for India should contact ENZ at: india@enz.govt.nz.

• NZ agricultural innovation on show in Colombia

  Tru-Test, Gallagher, ISL Animal Health and Livestock Improvement Corporation showcased their world-leading pasture-based farming technologies, while we talked about the opportunities for agricultural training available in New Zealand.

  “It was another great opportunity for the NZ Inc team based in Santiago to work together,” said ENZ’s Market Development Manager Javiera Visedo.

  “I was able to talk with prospective students for the agriculture sector who were thinking about where to study and having New Zealand companies and technology there really answered the question of ‘why New Zealand?’."

  “Now that I have participated in this event for the first time, I hope that next time we can have a couple of institutions along that can talk with students face-to-face,” said Javiera.

  NZTE’s Trade Commissioner responsible for Colombia, Rhianon Berry said the goal of the expo was to show local producers how New Zealand’s agricultural innovation can be an important ally to increase productivity and efficiency in Colombian pastures.

  "In recent years, Colombia has aroused the significant interest of New Zealand companies due to its great potential for doing business in the agricultural sector, in particular in the conversion of pastures into proteins, an area in which New Zealand has extensive knowledge," explains Berry.

  New Zealand is experiencing a significant period of growth in numbers of Colombian students coming here to study. In the year to date student visas issued have increased by 120 percent, with the majority of the increase occurring in the PTE sector which accounts for 79 percent of all Colombian students who come to New Zealand. 

• From Vermont to Victoria University

  Emma McDonough Faucher, a college student from Castleton in the state of Vermont, was one of 1089 applicants from 615 US universities to apply for the scholarship. She impressed the selection panel with her knowledge of New Zealand and desire to understand and experience the Kiwi lifestyle and culture, including Māoritanga.

  “I have wanted to study abroad my entire life and New Zealand has been my goal,” said Emma. 

  “Māori culture is one of the things I am especially looking forward to learning about – I find it interesting that Maori people describe themselves by their tribe (iwi), sub-tribe (hapū), mountain (maunga), and river (awa).”

  ENZ’s Regional Director for the Americas, Lisa Futschek said, “The creativity and passion of Emma’s submission distinguished it from the large number of other very impressive applications. The fact that she plays rugby also makes this a good match!”

  US students choose New Zealand as an education destination because of the unique study experience we offer – a high-quality education in an English-speaking country with a distinct culture and lifestyle. Students who come here are often adventure seekers who enjoy the great outdoors and like to get off the beaten track, but also want to enjoy the vibrant city life.

  ENZ partnered with leading study abroad advisory service, Go Overseas to run a six week campaign across the US from 1 September to 15 October. During this time over 26,000 people visited the campaign page, and 2,600 study abroad advisers and over 1500 universities were contacted and notified of the scholarship.

  Leads from scholarship applicants and others who registered interest have been referred to participating New Zealand education providers.

  “As well as giving a lucky student the chance to study in New Zealand, campaigns such as this are an important part of ENZ’s work to raise awareness around the world of New Zealand’s high-quality education offering,” said Lisa.

  

  Left to right: Sam Hoben, Education New Zealand Market Development Manager USA, Emma McDonough Faucher, scholarship winner, and Ana Maria Alfaro-Alexander, Ph. D, Study Abroad Advisor

   

• Student stories go social

  The films were promoted on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Weibo, Wechat and the blogging platform Naffnang. Students were encouraged to watch the films, ask questions about life in New Zealand, get in touch and join our social community.

  While the videos provided a slice of student life that could be anywhere in the country, the stars themselves come from Onslow College in Wellington (Yang Xiao from China), Yoobee Design School in Christchurch (Anaiss Ramirez from Chile) and Canterbury, Auckland and Waikato universities (featuring Hannah Vu from Viet Nam, Alicia Jauhari from Indonesia and Lucas Castro Oliveira from Brazil).

  The campaign was designed to show prospective students that New Zealand is a fun and welcoming place to live and study so that, when they’re ready to choose a place to study in a couple of years’ time, New Zealand will already be on their short list.

  The videos were viewed by close to 250,000 people around the world and proved most popular in Viet Nam, Malaysia, Saudi Arabia, Indonesia and India in that order. The videos also saw impressive engagement with more than 111,000 ‘likes’, 1,100 ‘shares’ and almost 1,500 questions or comments about the videos and related content posts.

  Topics the students were most interested in included study subjects, living costs, food options and making new friends. Overall, the campaign saw an increase of 32,000 new followers to our social media channels.

  As well as activity on social media, a campaign landing page on studyinnewzealand.com was developed to further engage with prospective students. The landing page has so far seen more than 63,000 unique visitors who have spent an average of 2 minutes 20 seconds on the site watching further videos and learning more about our five campaign heroes.

  There were many learnings from this campaign, not the least of which was gleaning valuable insights in to the social and digital behaviours of our target audiences in each market.

  It is clear from this campaign that social media is both a cost efficient and effective way to reach prospective students and drive awareness of New Zealand as a study destination.

  A reminder that the ‘Day in the Life’ videos are also are available for download from The Brand Lab. You might find them a useful addition to your marketing activities!

  

• New Study Auckland manager

  Keri has transferred from a Tourism Development role with ATEED and is excited by the opportunity, and is looking forward to working with Auckland education institutions. She is very keen to ensure students not only have the best educational experience, but also an engaging and memorable personal experience during their time in Auckland.

  You can contact Keri at keri.edmonds@aucklandnz.com or (09) 354 7043.

• 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

• Pakistan providers visit New Zealand

  The visit’s primary purpose is to increase the number of New Zealand Universities on Pakistan’s approved PhD scholarship list.

  This visit follows an ENZ-led inaugural education delegation trip to Pakistan from 26-30 October 2014. The trip was to scope out opportunities in the Postgraduate and Degree-level student markets. The delegation included representatives from universities, Institutes of Technology and Polytechnics and Private Training Establishments, and was also supported by Immigration New Zealand and the Honorary Consul General for Pakistan, Mr Moin Fudda.

  Feedback from the providers on this market development approach was positive, with delegation members signalling they’ll be heading back into the market in 2015 as part of a sustained promotional effort.

  “We’re really happy with the lessons and outcomes from the trip. We’re progressing a market-development plan with Immigration New Zealand, which can provide a staged market development approach focussing on high-value students” says Middle East Director John Laxon.

  The visit attracted some media coverage in Pakistan, including these pieces in Pakistan Today and the Daily Times.