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An update from ENZ’s international teams
Instead, they’ve been taking proactive steps to support and connect with the international education sector safely, in line with local COVID-19 restrictions.
Communicating with stakeholders
For ENZ, ensuring the wellbeing of international students who remain in New Zealand over this lockdown period is a key priority. A factsheet outlining New Zealand’s support for international students has been developed and translated into the languages of key priority markets.
Our teams overseas have been communicating with a range of stakeholders from local government and institutions to providers and agents, and in some cases directly to students and parents to ensure they have the latest information.
ENZ staff have been recommending students enrol on NauMai NZ and asking international partners to pass SafeTravel information on to New Zealand students they may have on campus.
The International team is able to tap into these networks for market-specific insights to help inform the New Zealand international education industry’s next steps during this rapidly-evolving and unprecedented situation.
Anecdotally, the response in New Zealand has been well received overseas. New Zealand’s proactive approach to communications has been noted by partners.
Doing it digital
For our teams offshore, fairs, conferences and other international education events have had to be cancelled or postponed. As a result, they’ve ramped up their online activities.
To share best practice advice and take advantage of the pause in promotional activity, they’ve developed educational webinars for sector stakeholders.
1. On 24 March, ENZ Market Development Manager Shelly Xu teamed up with the General Manager of UMS (a China media specialist agency), Jordi Du, to deliver a webinar for New Zealand international education staff on Chinese social media. Over 30 people attended.
The Chinese digital space looks very different to ours. The platforms WeChat and Weibo rule, rather than Facebook and Twitter. Shelly and Jordi aimed to demystify Chinese platforms by taking providers through the Chinese social landscape and discussing what kind of posts would stand out to their target audiences.
2. On 17 March, ENZ Team India delivered a webinar especially for Indian agents and counsellors focused on business courses available in New Zealand.
An incredible 177 people tuned in to hear from ENZ staff as well as guest speakers: Associate Professor Lincoln Wood from University of Otago; Dr Jens Mueller from Massey University; Ashish Suri from The University of Waikato and Andrea McLeod-Karim from Victoria University of Wellington.
3. On 16 April, Senior Market Development Manager for Chile and Colombia, Javiera Visedo, was the guest on a Facebook Live session with the Blue Studies agency (who have over 21,000 followers) for the Latin America Spanish-speaking audience.
She also presented at Colfuturo (a Colombian scholarship-loan non-profit organisation) for a Study in New Zealand webinar on 17 April. This week, she will participate in a virtual fair organised by Colombian agency Estudiar.
For the chance to attend future webinars, keep an eye on E-News and the ENZ LinkedIn and Twitter pages.
Beginning to test market sentiment
As ENZ moves into the next phase of supporting the international sector, a new priority for our international teams is testing market sentiment.
For example, a survey was sent out to agents in Spanish-speaking markets in March. Of the 18 responses received, most of the agents have English language students in New Zealand and 68 percent are from Colombia. The agents set out their students’ main concerns at the moment: work situation while studying, uncertainty of the global situation, and visa expiration.
This fits with what we are hearing across all markets – agents and other institutional partners need information about New Zealand’s response to the current situation.
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New Zealand continues to protect and care for international students during lockdown
Providers, host families and supporting networks have been setting up additional support for international students to ensure they feel connected and safe.
Education New Zealand is pulling together some of the great things that have been taking place across the sector. Here are just a small number that we have heard about so far.
- Otago University has a dedicated information page for students, with students registering with Ask Otago. They can then request daily phone calls to check in and see how they are doing. University recreation centre staff are also offering virtual fitness classes.
- University of Auckland has been supporting the COVID-19 response by undertaking modelling work that informs the Prime Minister’s Chief Science Advisor and working directly with the Auckland District Health Board to help with testing capacity by using their facilities and people.
- Rotorua English Language Academy (RELA) is teaching online classes to 30 students from nine different countries. Many students are worried about their families back home so in addition to support during class time, staff make individual phone calls and arrange fun activities such as the recent Easter video competition on WhatsApp. Friday full-school assemblies and farewell speeches continue to lift students’ spirits with the RELA tradition of singing ‘Now is the Hour’ – managed by the school’s director playing on the piano at home while students sing over Zoom.
- Several Northland schools have been working closely with Study Northland to support the 150 international students in their care. The international students are being well supported by their schools and homestay families by keeping them busy and making them feel like an integral part of the family.
- SIEBA is doing an amazing job supporting the school sector. The small SIEBA team has been working around the clock to provide advice and guidance to schools, including publishing residential care emergency guidance to help schools navigate these tricky areas. On top of all that, SIEBA is raising key issues with the Ministry of Education and alerting government agencies to emerging challenges.
- Massey University’s international support staff are running virtual one-on-one support sessions which can be arranged by the students themselves. The university, like other universities, is making personal phone calls to all students to ensure they feel supported. Massey also has a range of wellbeing resources available and the recreation centres have taken their services online.
- Aspire2 International has launched a number of online learning solutions that have all gained NZQA accreditation. This means English, hospitality, IT and business students can transition from face-to-face to remote learning quickly in order to complete their qualifications.
We want to hear more about the great work the sector is doing to support international students within New Zealand both in enabling their learning but also supporting their wellbeing.
Please let us know what your organisation has been doing and we will look to share this wider. Send your stories to industryteam@enz.govt.nz.
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Assistance during COVID-19
International students are valued members of our community. We want to ensure they stay safe and have access to the information, care and support they need during this time.
Education providers, intermediary or community organisations and students can use the resources linked below to know where international students in New Zealand can find assistance if they are in urgent need of essentials like food, medicine or cleaning products.
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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.
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Happy birthday, SIEBA!
Today, the Schools International Education Business Association (SIEBA) has over 400 member schools. This membership hosts about 90 percent of all of international students at New Zealand schools.
As recently as 2014, there was no peak body for schools wanting to participate in international education – but not for a lack of demand.
In the same year, Education New Zealand (itself only three years at the time), set out to co-create Strategic Roadmaps with the sector. One of the biggest things to come out of our consultation with the schools sector was that they wanted their own peak body.
ENZ’s Business Development Manager for the schools sector, Mary Camp, described ENZ’s early investment as a “no-brainer”.
Now, SIEBA is completely self-sufficient financially, but ENZ’s relationship with them remains strong.
“Our relationship has been constructive, transparent and extremely successful,” Mary says. “Some examples of are work together are the Korean and Chilean government scholarship schemes and educating agents offshore.”
When COVID-19 turned the world upside down, the importance of SIEBA was underlined.
“SIEBA has been the go-to for the schools sector,” Mary says. “We are working closely with SIEBA, like all of our peak bodies, as part of the COVID-19 recovery and sector rebuild.”
SIEBA Executive Director John van der Zwan says he is immensely proud to have had the opportunity to work with New Zealand’s schools community.
“I am constantly encouraged by the work people do in the school sector, and by the amazing commitment that schools make to support the young students from around the world that come to New Zealand to learn,” he says. “All of us at SIEBA are so fortunate to be a part of a very special group of people in a very special area of education.”
John has been involved with the organisation since its inception. He was part of the working group that prepared a proposal seeking support from the school sector for a peak body in 2014.
To help SIEBA get off the ground, John was appointed as Interim Executive Director in 2015 before moving into the permanent role a year later.
“The biggest achievement for me has been working with some wonderful people to get SIEBA to a position where we are recognised, not only for how we support schools day to day, but for being prepared and ready for the role we are about play in leading our sector through the biggest crisis we will ever face,” he says.
“The SIEBA team has worked hard to know our business, build a strong reputation, develop valuable relationships with our partners and be in a great position to lead the work that lies ahead.”
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Internationalisation remains a key focus for Education New Zealand
Under the inaugural funding collaboration with FAPESP, ENZ has pledged NZ $105,000 to nine research projects. Each project is led in tandem with academics from New Zealand and Brazil.
And for the 15th year, ENZ has supported the joint work of New Zealand and Chinese researchers through the Tripartite Fund. This year’s funding round provided NZ $20,000 to five projects (rather than the traditional NZ $30,000 to three) due to the ongoing COVID-19 travel restrictions.
As the Government is currently advising New Zealanders not to travel internationally, this funding was pledged on the proviso that the researchers either work together online or delay any international travel to a later date.
Internationalisation is a crucial part of the New Zealand International Education Strategy (NZIES) under all three pillars.
“Supporting and investing in international academic mobility is one unique way ENZ can contribute to this goal. We see short-term benefits, like person-to-person links and the strengthening of diplomatic relationships, as well as long-term benefits like increased trade flow,” says ENZ’s Chief Executive Grant McPherson.
Building international links between institutions can also directly impact their rankings. Times Higher Education recently released their Latin America University Rankings 2020, which featured seven Brazilian universities in the top 10. The Times Higher Education’s methodology includes five factors – learning environment, research, citations, international outlooks and industry income – all of which can be positively impacted by initiatives like the NZ-FAPESP funding and Tripartite Fund.
“Internationalisation is all about building and maintaining relationships. I am very proud that ENZ has not only managed to sustain this crucial link with China, but built new connections with Brazil.”
Over the history of the Tripartite Fund, we’ve seen positive outcomes across a variety of research areas including environmental protection and climate change, health and medicine, animal science, educational development, media literacy, renewable energy and the conservation and heritage of national parks. The partnership with FAPESP also started with relevant areas for New Zealand, like education, engineering, biological sciences and health.
It’s a mark of the high-quality and reputation of New Zealand’s universities’ that they all are able to enter in the Tripartite Fund and arrangements like the one with FAPESP.
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Meet the team: John Goulter
Could you please outline your own role and the role of the Stakeholders and Communications team?
The Stakeholders and Communications team looks after the part of ENZ’s work that intersects with key external groups – such as other government departments, Ministers, Parliament and, through our various channels, the people of New Zealand.
We try to get all those influences lined up in support of international education. Right now, thanks to COVID-19, there is more external focus on international education than there has been for years. We try to ensure it’s well-informed.
How has COVID-19 impacted your team’s work, and what work do you have ahead of you with the recovery?
Sometimes it seems like we have done nothing else since COVID-19 appeared on the horizon way back in January.
It has brought to the surface some long-running issues about international education. It’s an opportunity for us to show leadership in outlining the future role of the sector, and developing interesting new approaches.
John with ENZ Field Director - North America Lewis Gibson in Washington DC.
Can you tell me a bit about your professional background?
I was a journalist for a long time, mainly reporting politics from the Press Gallery in Parliament.
I loved that at the time but I moved into public affairs roles because after a while in journalism I wanted to be influencing the way things happen, rather than just writing about them.
Journalism is now changing totally, like many sectors are. Some new models are emerging, but it’s a struggle in a country the size of New Zealand.
What do you enjoy doing in your free time?
I like running and travelling and live music. So I’m not having a great year. Most running events have been cancelled or postponed, and so have all the concerts I had booked for.
I listen to some podcasts, mainly about running and politics in the United States. It is hard for us to fathom the depth of the COVID-19 crisis they are going through.
I actually liked a lot about our lockdown. It was good being a little family unit at home. I loved running on nearly empty roads. I took up Zoom yoga classes with my daughter in Christchurch. I wonder about what the new reality is going to look like for us all.
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MyStudy NZ WeChat mini programme gets a refresh
MyStudy NZ is our intelligent matching tool which matches prospective students to courses and institutions in New Zealand based on a set of questions and areas of interest. It can be found on www.studyinnewzealand.govt.nz for our western markets.
However, for our China market who predominantly use WeChat, we developed a mini programme for them in November 2018.
The new version of the mini programme continues the original smart matching, but is more user-friendly and personalised, making it easy for students to obtain official information about application.
How is 2.0 better than 1.0? We believe it’s better in eight different ways:
- Social sharing enabled – Prospective students who come across their dream school can now share it to a WeChat friend or group chat immediately. The recipient can open the mini programme and view the details of the school as well.
- One-click authorisation – Students won’t have to fill in all the details to become a member anymore. With one click, prospective students can authorise their WeChat accounts to become registered MyStudy NZ members.
- Clear living costs displayed – Once prospective students get a match, they can expand and view the annual living costs in a pop-up window.
- You can see the latest content with added filter – Without registering, students can view the latest OA articles and filter based on views or posting date.
- UX (user experience) optimisation – Users can now choose paths when entering the mini programme.
- Complete UI (user interface) update – To remain consistent with the refreshed ‘I am New’ brand.
- New notifications – Push notifications will be sent to remind students to register, do course matching, bookmark favourite schools and talk to them.
- Speed optimisation and no more errors – We have done some coding optimisations and upgraded our server so the mini programme will load faster and users shouldn’t receive any more error messages.
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English New Zealand announces new chair
Darren, who is the managing director and co-owner of Languages International, previously served as English New Zealand’s chair from June 2012 to 2015.
English New Zealand chair Darren Conway.
“I was planning for something much more relaxing than stepping back into the chair’s role at English New Zealand,” he said.
“But these are unprecedented times and I’m happy to take up the challenge. I hope that my experience and advocacy can help English New Zealand lead the sector out of the current crisis. We can make a useful contribution to the recovery of the New Zealand economy, but we need both judicious and timely support and clear communication from the government, and that’s where our initial focus will be.”
English New Zealand say they greatly appreciate the contributions that Wayne, also the group principal for ICL Education, has made during his tenure.
“It has been a privilege to represent the 22 members schools and I have appreciated the opportunity to engage with government and non-government stakeholders, raising the awareness of what we do and advocating on members’ behalf,” Wayne said.
“We have long argued that our quality and experience be recognised by government agencies in a meaningful way - in the way the export education levy is determined, in the way our sector is quality assured, and in the way our English language courses are categorised.
“To that end, I was very pleased by the recent cabinet paper proposing legislative changes allowing for recognition of ELT as a separate sub-sector and opening the door to achieving these goals.”
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Around the world in five
GLOBAL
New study anticipates shifts in enrolment and market share into 2021
A new study finds that the number of students saying they will cancel their study abroad plans in light of the pandemic has declined in recent months.
UNITED STATES
US vs China rivalry in edtech, and how Covid-19 is having an impact
China and the US dominate the global edtech landscape, each with eight unicorns out of 18 private companies with a valuation of over $1 billion.
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Agents increasingly valued by educators during the Covid-19 lockdown
In a flash survey of education providers conducted by StudyTravel Magazine in June, 42 per cent of respondents revealed that agents had become more important to their business during the Covid-19 pandemic.
SINGAPORE
Lessons from lockdown
Despite their countries experiencing very different COVID trajectories, teachers in Singapore and New Zealand faced similar challenges during their respective lockdowns. We spoke to teachers from both countries to find out how they kept calm and carried on.
GLOBAL
COVID-19 has accelerated the digital transformation of higher education
Very few people would have predicted that universities would face such a paradigm shift – with predominant virtual teaching and remote working bursting onto the scene – as a consequence to a global pandemic.
