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Putting a healthy smile on the dial of Fiji’s children
“I love working with children, particularly those living with disabilities and special healthcare needs who require more inclusive oral health policies and programmes.”

He spent the early years of his career working as a hospital dentist and teaching at the Fiji National University’s School of Dentistry and Oral Health but was ambitious to accomplish much more and knew he would have to study overseas to achieve his goals.

He travelled first to Portugal to enrol in a Master’s in Public Health and then to the University of Otago’s Faculty of Dentistry to undertake his Postgraduate Clinical Doctoral Degree in Paediatric Dentistry.

As a third generation Fijian of Indian descent, he describes his international education experience as “life-changing, academically and culturally fulfilling.”

But Jason says he could never have afforded to study in New Zealand without the support of a Manaaki New Zealand Scholarship, funded through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade. The programme sets out to build future leaders in developing countries by supporting students to upskill here.

Advocating for better oral health outcomes

Improving the oral health of young people drives Jason’s clinical and research work and he knows that implementing a preventative approach to tooth decay is key to achieving sustainable outcomes.

“The mindset in the Pacific is that people mostly don’t come to the hospital clinics for dental care, they wait for pain or symptoms before seeking help,” he says. “But we need to advocate strongly for prevention which is more cost-effective and acceptable.”

Arriving at the University of Otago in 2019, Jason embarked on his thesis researching the remineralisation potential of selected peptides (one of the building blocks of protein) in preventing tooth decay.

“Dental decay is prevalent, especially among children, but it is reversible in its early stages. The mainstay of prevention has been fluoride, but we proved that the peptides do have remineralisation potential. Investigation is now under way to learn how it performs alongside fluoride.”

“I think it has huge potential for the future. The dream would be that we have the next generation of children growing up without fillings in their mouths.”

Jason says this kind of research would not have been possible in Fiji. “I was very grateful for the experience at Otago. It was an environment that was both supportive and collaborative. It opened up networking opportunities for me. And those networks still support me today.”

Jason also cared for patients at the faculty’s clinical facilities and theatre suites and provided on-call dental services for emergency patients after-hours at Dunedin Hospital, building close bonds with some of his young patients, especially those with special needs.

"The dream would be that we have the next generation of children growing up without fillings in their mouths."

International education builds skills and confidence

After his graduation in December, Jason returned to FNU School of Dentistry with additional skills and new-found confidence. “I think that gaining a formal specialist qualification has given me a voice to continue to advocate for children’s oral health through dental education.”

He wants to establish preventative oral health programmes in schools and help improve the curriculum being taught to dental students in the region, integrating recent innovations and research evidence.

It’s something he has been thinking about for many years. “Hopefully now we’ll get this done.”

“I’ve expanded my knowledge, upskilled, and I think I have become more confident as an academic, and as a person. I’ve got my international education and training to thank for that.”

Manaaki scholar gives back to the community

Jason is certainly fulfilling the brief of the Manaaki Scholarship to give back to his community. He is maintaining his clinical hours, teaching the next generation of dental students, volunteering his services at an NGO-run paediatric cardiac care hospital, and mentoring students wanting follow in his footsteps by studying overseas.

“International education is very important to Fiji as a developing country,” he says. “I thought it would be valuable to be able to guide students who would benefit from international scholarships in meeting their professional goals, while building capacity in the region.”

At heart, though, he is an academic and he hopes that in the coming years he can raise the research profile of the Pacific region and build a solid database which will help to secure the funding for much-needed oral healthcare programmes.

“My message is that there is no general health without oral health. It’s not going to be easy, but we need to start somewhere to get a voice for children and for the profession.”
Thinking regionally, acting globally, at ANZA
Education New Zealand (ENZ) extended its presence this year by creating a New Zealand pavilion, featuring 11 regional international education organisations hosted by regional representatives. The Immigration New Zealand team, lead by Celia Coombes, joined the pavilion along with the ENZ team.
In addition to the pavilion, ENZ organised additional wrap-around events to both create a spirit of collaboration amongst the regional representatives, and maximise the networking with agents, New Zealand education providers and the team from ICEF.
ENZ’s Regional Project Managers, Jo Keane and Sarah Gauthier, believe the regional approach boosted the profile of New Zealand education as a whole, with Sarah commenting, “Each New Zealand region has its own distinctive characteristics and it’s important to raise awareness of these to agents so they can, in turn, promote them to international students.
“ANZA was a great forum to showcase the diversity of our study options and the regional learning, living and working opportunities, and share the New Zealand Story with our agent audience” said Greg Scott, Programme Manager for the Regional Partnership Programme.
This year’s innovative approach to ANZA was regarded as a great success by the regional representatives, with Learning Hawke’s Bay’s Business Development Manager, Stephanie Kennard, commenting, “The Pavilion made a huge impact and was a talking point amongst many of the agents. The stand, the ENZ presentation on the Wednesday afternoon and the networking event on Friday night were all brilliant!”
Susanna Leisten, an ANZA attendee from Thames High School, says, “I felt so proud to be a Kiwi and am very grateful and appreciative of all your efforts and really enjoyed the ENZ Friday evening networking event. I have made some very useful contacts and am positive that the event you hosted made a big difference.”
“We think that these types of collaborative platforms are essential – to strengthen the New Zealand education story with regional input and opportunities. We hope to do more of this in the future,” said Greg Scott.
ENZ is now considering ways to incorporate regional international education organisations into other events and activities, demonstrating so effectively the learning, living and working opportunities for international students across all of New Zealand.
Confidence in Christchurch
Murray Strong, Chair of the Canterbury Leadership Accord, joined Christchurch Educated Chair, Mike Hadley, in opening the day with a reminder of the Strategy vision and 2025 targets to lift student enrolments to 25,000 and economic value to $937 million. Murray noted that good progress is being made in a range of product and market development projects.
The Chief Executive of the Canterbury Employers Chamber of Commerce, Peter Townsend, indicated that, with $100 million additional investment each week, the Christchurch rebuild will maintain its momentum for some time to come. Drawing on material produced by the Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Authority, Peter emphasised the bright future for the city as a place to learn, live and work.
Peter noted that; “The future of this region depends on the way we apply technology to our natural capital on a platform of product and service integrity”.
He challenged our industry to ensure that “service integrity” is central to all we provide for our customers.
Carl Everett, International Director, Christchurch Boys’ High School, commented; “There was a lot of talk about innovation, being flexible and thinking of new ways to approach the market, and then sharing all of that information together – especially here in Christchurch, where we are particularly good at sharing.”
Deanne Gath, International Director, Kaiapoi High School, particularly liked the definition of collaboration suggested by keynote speaker, Education Consultant, Chris Clay; “I like the idea that collaboration is working together to an end goal, but not necessary all doing the same thing. It’s about not putting all our eggs in one basket, but trialling different things to see what works – with the end goal being that we all want to increase international student numbers in the Canterbury region,” she said.
The Conference was closed by Christchurch City Councillor Jimmy Chen, representing Mayor Lianne Dalziel, who emphasised the contribution of international education to the region and the commitment of local government to support future growth aspirations.
Above: Conference attendees
Planning for success in Taranaki
The Taranaki International Education Strategy was launched by Minister Joyce in New Plymouth on Tuesday 23 February, when he announced that the government is investing $162,000 in the initiative over two years, through the RPP.
And, the news of the launch reached China!
A partnership between Venture Taranaki and local education providers will allow the group to share resources and make strategic and targeted investments. It will also enable collateral and pathway products to be developed, agent familiarisation visits to take place, and make it possible for the region to be represented at the Australia New Zealand Agent (ANZA) Workshop on 13 – 15 April 2016.
Minister Joyce’s visit to Taranaki sends out a strong message that international education in New Zealand’s non-metro regions is high on the agenda.
The government has committed an additional $2 million in 2016/17 to ENZ’s RPP for supporting growth initiatives in the regions. The additional funding is to build on the successes in 2015, with 11 out of 14 regions experiencing an increase in international student numbers.
The RPP will support the implementation of growth projects involving our regions outside of the metro centres. As announced previously in E-News, three new Regional Project Managers join our Business Development Managers in supporting regional growth initiatives: Sahinde Pala, based in Auckland with a focus on the regions north of Taupo; Jo Keane, based in Wellington and supporting our central regions from Taranaki to Nelson Marlborough; and Sarah Gauthier who will manage a range of pan-regional projects including New Zealand’s regional presence at ANZA, the development of an online regional resource and an agent familariisation programme.
For more information about ENZ’s RPP contact Greg Scott, Programme Manager Regional Partnership: greg.scott@enz.govt.nz Phone: 64 3 3795575 Mobile: 64 21 2422868
Around the world in five: News round-up 3 March 2016
THAILAND
The Bangkok Post reports on the pace of progress to reform the education system in Thailand, the impact of this on Thai people and the Thai economy, and the flow on effects of intense competition for international schools in Bangkok. The article states Thailand may now be ready to increasingly look to foreign partners to make progress; the Education Ministry is reported to be working with Cambridge University to reform English language teaching and assessment and talking to education officials in Finland.

GLOBAL
Research in to the regional differences in motivations, goals and behaviours of students seeking to study internationally culminated in FPP Edu Media producing a report that provides insights in to which messages and education offerings resonate in which markets. Download the report here.

JAPAN
This month the Japan Business Federation, Keidanren, has brought forward the national start date for its companies’ rigorous graduate hiring processes, with mixed views to date on the impact for Japanese students studying abroad. From this year the association has advised members to begin interviewing students from June for job offers in October. Encouragingly, Keidanren’s guidelines have suggested companies make allowances for students abroad when hiring. The PIE News provides more detail.

SAUDI ARABIA
The recently appointed Minister Mohammed Al Isa has signaled that the Ministry [link in Arabic] will review a long-standing ban on foreign universities being established in Saudi, and commented that private education will ‘drive the future of the education sector’.

MALAYSIA
The Malaysian government has reported that it is on track to meet its goal of attracting 200,000 international students annually by 2020. Earlier this month it announced that all university students will be required to pass English language, currently taught as a second language, in order to graduate from university. The government expects a focus on English languages skills at all levels of its education system will make Malaysia a more attractive international education destination. Read more in The PIE News.
GST and international students
Officials recently released an issues paper dealing with the GST treatment of immigration services provided to non-residents. While this does not have direct implications for educational institutions, it does serve as a timely reminder that supplies to non-residents must be considered carefully when determining whether GST applies or not.
The general rule regarding supplies of services to non-residents is that if the non-resident receives the supply in New Zealand, GST will apply. Conversely, if the supply or services physically takes place outside New Zealand, or if it is made to a non-resident who is not in New Zealand when the services are performed, the supply will be subject to GST at 0 percent.
In relation to international students, where they come to New Zealand for their education GST must be charged. If the international students are enrolled in distance learning and do not come to New Zealand for the purpose of the course being provided, the supply will be zero-rated.
However, there may be situations where the international student completes most of the course via distance learning from offshore, but attends for example block courses in New Zealand as part of the course. In this situation part of the course delivery will be received by the student in New Zealand which makes the supply subject to GST at 15 percent rather than 0 percent.
Based on the comments in the immigration services issues paper, potentially all of the course fee could become subject to GST at 15 percent in this scenario, although depending on the detailed arrangements the GST liability may be able to be limited to a portion of the total course fee.
If you offer any courses where the supply is received by students both within and outside New Zealand, we recommend that you seek tax advice regarding your GST liability.
Andrea Scatchard is an Associate Director in the Hamilton office of Deloitte, and Allan Bullot is a Partner in the Auckland office. Andrea can be contacted on 07 838 4808, and Allan can be contacted on 09 303 0732.
While care has been taken in the preparation of this article, it has been prepared to provide general information only and should not be taken as a substitute for seeking professional advice.
Deloitte does not accept any liability for any loss that may arise as a result of any person relying on the information or views expressed in this article.
International education a $2.6 billion dollar industry
Infometrics valued the economic contribution of international students to New Zealand at $2.5 billion and the sale and delivery of New Zealand’s education services and products offshore at $104 million.

Education New Zealand (ENZ) Chief Executive, Grant McPherson, says while the report presents a comprehensive picture of international education’s economic contribution, its immense social and cultural benefits shouldn’t be forgotten when considering value.

“As well as its economic benefits, international education strengthens New Zealand’s global connections. It helps tomorrow’s business partners, investors, politicians and leaders – both from New Zealand and overseas – to form enduring connections and build greater cultural understanding.”

Visit the Research webpage for a copy of the report and an infographic of key findings.
Expert advice for schools
The case studies provide expert advice for schools from leading international education practitioners within the school sector.
The case studies highlight key lessons from a primary, an intermediate and five secondary schools, from Auckland to Invercargill. The case studies explore a range of themes, including marketing, staffing models and capability, economics and financing, planning and processes, student experience, homestay and academic support, and overarching principles.
A summary of the key lessons from all the case studies has been compiled into the Top tips for international student programmes.
The case studies are part of the growing range of ENZ products and services for schools. Other support includes the Strategic Roadmap programme, the International Education Growth Fund, school website review service, school reference group and Business Development Managers who can provide advice and support to help you grow your international business. More tools to support schools will be released in the coming months. To keep up with developments, subscribe to our E-news and keep an eye on our web site.
Govt announcements welcomed
The new initiatives included allowing more English language students studying at high-quality providers to work part-time, providing full-time work rights during all scheduled holidays to international students who take a course of one academic year or more, and giving unlimited work rights to international PhD and Masters by research students. Immigration New Zealand (INZ) will also no longer grant visas to students seeking to enrol at the few providers in Category 4, the lowest status granted by the New Zealand Qualifications Authority (NZQA).
Detailed questions and answers about the announcements are available on the INZ website.
Education New Zealand (ENZ) has shared this news with agents and overseas media, with the announcements receiving good coverage via Facebook page postings, media coverage and via informing and engaging agents.
Grant McPherson, ENZ Chief Executive, said last week: “Changes to government policy settings and regulations are incredibly important in supporting your efforts to grow international student numbers – we’ve heard that through the industry survey, the roadshow meetings and the feedback ENZ staff have taken on board at many meetings around the country.
“These announcements are great news for our international competitiveness, but they’re not the end of the story. We will continue to work closely with agencies on initiatives to help grow our industry and we encourage you to stay in touch with us about the opportunities you see to further remove barriers to growth.”
Student Voice 2013 a ‘great opportunity’
Twenty five current and former international students gathered to share their education experiences and to network with other international students.
Activities kicked off with a scavenger hunt where the teams were given a list of clues and tasks to complete at different locations around the city. The scavenger hunt included a creative photo competition to create content for our social media channels. Photos from the scavenger hunt can be found on our Facebook page.
During day two of Student Voice, workshops were held to learn more about the pathways students took to study in New Zealand, their education experiences, and their views on what can be done to improve the student experience.
Participants also fed back on the new, New Zealand Education Story brand, creating their own execution of the brand posters.
ENZ selected three current international students and one alumnus from the Student Voice group to make up the panel members for the Student Voice 2013 session at the New Zealand International Education Conference. The panel members will share their education pathway experiences and the findings from Student Voice 2013.
We are very excited to have such outstanding representatives of New Zealand education joining us.