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• Qualifications Framework update
  In November the NZQF Qualification Listing and Operational Rules were amended to enable quality-assured qualifications at levels 1-6 that meet particular needs of an overseas country. The change allows qualification developers to apply to the New Zealand Qualifications Authority (NZQA) to list a qualification at levels 1-6 that are tailored to specific offshore needs for vocational education and training at certificate and diploma levels.
   

  In most cases New Zealand qualifications at levels 1-6 are well suited to overseas labour markets. However, in some exceptional circumstances, these qualifications lack the required content (most likely regulatory) for a particular country and a separate qualification may be developed for listing on the NZQF.

   

  Listing a qualification on the NZQF makes its quality-assured status transparent. Qualifications for specific overseas requirements must undergo the same rigorous quality assurance as all other qualifications.

   

  For more information about the recent amendments to the rules and offshore programme delivery see the NZQA website: www.nzqa.govt.nz/providers-partners/offshore-use-of-qualifications-and-programmes/.

• Student visas & Sri Lanka

  Currently these applications are processed in the INZ Bangkok Area Office. From 27 January 2014 the INZ Mumbai Area Office will process all student visa applications lodged in Sri Lanka.

  Visa applications will continue to be submitted to the Visa Application Centre (VAC) in Colombo, Sri Lanka. However, once applications are processed in India there will no longer be an option to pay by credit card. All visa application fees must be paid in $USD Bank Drafts made out to “Immigration New Zealand”.

  The VAC service fee remains unchanged and can be paid in cash, bank draft or bank transfer.

  Applications from Sri Lanka lodged before 27 January 2014 will continue to be processed at the INZ Bangkok Area Office and can be paid for by credit card. 

  For further information, please refer to updates on the INZ website here. 

  General inquiries from Sri Lanka can be directed to: Mumbaifeedback@mbie.govt.nz or NewDelhifeedback@mbie.govt.nz. 

• NZ education front page in India
  The story, an interview with Education New Zealand’s South Asia Regional Director, Ziena Jalil, was the result of a nationwide awareness-raising mission currently running in India. This includes joint media briefings with ENZ and Immigration New Zealand, and Indian news and education journalists visiting New Zealand. 

  The media work promotes New Zealand as a study destination and education business partner to influential Indian media that are widely followed by prospective Indian students and their parents. 

  Early results are pleasing, with extensive coverage highlighting the benefits of study in New Zealand. The media work has included regular feeding of stories, and two joint media briefings with Immigration New Zealand in New Delhi and Mumbai. More briefings are planned, covering the country from Chandigarh to Kochi.

  The combined approach with INZ has been a particularly successful feature of the mission, Ziena says. It is the first time the two agencies have fronted media together, and the effectiveness of the collaboration suggests it may be useful in other target markets. 

  “The media are also very interested to find out more about immigration related issues so it is great to have Nathanael Mackay, INZ Area Manager, to answer questions about visa processing times and work rights associated with student visas,” she says.

  “More than 11,000 students from India are currently studying in New Zealand, making India one of the fastest growing student markets for New Zealand. Our media work is a great way to raise awareness of the growing Indian presence in New Zealand as well as the business and education partnerships which are underway and in the pipeline.”

  February has been a busy month for Indian media in New Zealand too, with two specialist Indian education writers visiting.  

  Malini Sen, the editor of the Education Times (part of The Times of India), spent five days in early February meeting Indian students in New Zealand and touring universities, institutes of technology and polytechnics throughout the country. One student she talked to was Kevin D’Souza, a former advertising executive from Mumbai. Kevin enrolled in the MBA programme at the Auckland University of Technology after deciding he wanted to "skill up" while "spending more time with my family and enjoying the slower pace of life in New Zealand".  

  On 24 February the editor of Education Plus (the education supplement of The Hindu) arrives for a week’s visit. The Hindu is considered the most influential paper in India, with particularly strong coverage in south India. Archana Subramanium’s focus will be on the niche courses New Zealand has to offer, such as marine biology and geology. 

  Having journalists on the ground can provide surprising insight. A chat with border security staff at Auckland airport revealed a need for arriving students to have more information about the presence of Indian speciality food stores here, saving a lot of food confiscation in customs. Malini Sen promised to confirm to her Education Times readers that Indian foods are widely available in the multi-cultural country that is New Zealand. 

• Research funding available for China edu-tourism research

  The China Market Information Programme is administered by the Ministry of Business Innovation & Employment (MBIE). It offers dollar-for-dollar support for businesses keen to research improved offerings in this area. 

  The aim is to assist tourism and related businesses to better target and develop products and services for our second largest and fastest-growing visitor market. 

  To be eligible, the research needs to be new, seek to understand the China visitor market better, have a product and/or service development focus, and target one or more of the higher value segments of the market. These segments include the tourism overlap with education services. 

  The programme opened in October 2013, and has allocated funding of $1.6 million over two years. It invites applications from a wide range of co-investors, who can be individual businesses or research syndicates (based on region, itinerary, supply chain or a ‘special interest’). 

  For more information about the China Market Information Programme, see the MBIE website. 

• Campaigns go live

  New marketing campaigns are launching in these key markets in April and May – the first major campaigns to use the ‘Think New’ brand. 

  Kathryn McCarrison, General Manager Marketing and Channel Development, says the campaigns aim to raise awareness about New Zealand and provide information to people interested in studying here to support their decision-making, and to capture contact details.

  “Our research shows that New Zealand is close to halfway behind the awareness levels of key competitor countries: we’re just not top of mind when students overseas are considering their options.”

   “So these campaigns have a dual focus: to continue to raise awareness of New Zealand as a place to study generally, and to build up a database of students actively considering New Zealand for introduction to institutions and/or agents.”

  “The countries targeted are those identified by industry and in our market research as areas of significant potential growth in the near future.”

  The China campaign launched on Friday 11 April, with India to follow after Easter and Japan in May. 

  “As well as being the first major campaigns to use ‘Think New’, they’re also the first trial of a partnership approach with key education agencies. These agencies will amplify the campaign messages through their own networks,” adds Kathryn McCarrison. 

  “While the campaign messaging will be sector-focused – universities in China, tertiary education in India, and English language schools in Japan – agencies will advise prospective students on New Zealand education as a whole.”

  “Using such a targeted approach allows us to refine our campaign messaging tightly – to be sure we’re reaching people already considering studying in New Zealand with information relevant to their home country in order to generate high quality enquiries.” 

  “It’s a formula we’re trialling with a view to repeating it in other countries.”

  For more information about the first campaign off the block, read this story about the ‘Think New’ China campaign. 

  You can see where it fits into New Zealand’s overall education marketing activities in China here.

• Think New enters China

  It is the first major campaign to use ‘Think New’ brand and campaign concepts since their launch in November 2013.

  Kathryn McCarrison, General Manager Marketing and Channel Development, says while the campaign messaging will be university focused, agencies will advise prospective students on New Zealand education as a whole.  

  “This campaign is designed to target those already aware of New Zealand as a study destination – and turn their general interest into active consideration by introducing prospective students to key agents.”

  “These high-quality leads will go to high-quality education agents who can provide relevant information as students research New Zealand further. While the campaign messaging is university focused, these agencies are well informed about New Zealand and will introduce students to institutions offering all types of programmes and courses.”

  “In the process, ENZ will continue to grow a database of students interested in New Zealand who we can stay in touch with.” 

  Kathryn McCarrison says as well as being the first major ‘Think New’ campaign in China, it’s also the first trial of a partnership approach with key education agencies. 

  “These agencies will amplify the campaign messages through their own networks, reaching many thousands more students.” 

  The campaign will run from mid-April to the end of June, building on the successful CIEET fairs, the Dragons in a Distant Land documentary and ongoing awareness-raising work underway in China.   

  Agencies responding to student enquiries are Shinyway, JJL, New Oriental Vision Overseas and EIC.

  Download the campaign overview

• 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.