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  • Keeping international students at the forefront of the RoVE conversation

    ENZ has an important role in the implementation of the NZIST. We are tasked with ensuring the international education voice is heard and considered; supporting the vocational education sector during the transition; and helping shape the long-term plan for the NZIST international offering.

    ENZ recently hosted a communications workshop with government agencies, the IST Establishment Unit and RoVE communications professionals to discuss the potential impact the vocational education reforms may have on international students and the international education sector.

    The outcomes of the workshop included an international education focused communications approach that will consist of articles for overseas media, tailored updates for agents and students, and supporting brochures and factsheets. These will ensure international students and their support networks, which includes agents, family members and international office staff, receive relevant, timely information on the transition to the NZIST and feel confident that they know what it means for them and that New Zealand remains the best place for them to study.

    ENZ’s Kaylee Butters is currently on secondment to the role of Director, IST Implementation. This role is focused on developing a comprehensive marketing programme to support the vocational education sector during the transition to NZIST, and helping shape the long-term brand positioning of the institute internationally.

    “ENZ is excited by the opportunity to support the sector and the NZIST in these crucial stages of development,” Kaylee says. “We see this as an incredible chance to market New Zealand’s vocational education offering internationally under a strong, unified national brand.”

    The short-term plan will leverage ENZ’s existing channels and platforms to communicate a clear and confident message to prospective international students, agents and partners. The goal is to continue to attract high-calibre learners to the ITP sector with key messaging and content that aligns with ENZ’s Think New brand.

    Long-term, ENZ has an opportunity to work with the NZIST and other Government agencies to design a customised and competitive ‘package’ for international students.

    To assist with the day one requirements of the NZIST, ENZ is also supporting the development of the institute's new website. ENZ has developed a student-facing digital ecosystem with award-winning digital marketing capability, business intelligence and Government-level security. ENZ is able to leverage crown investment by using www.studyinnewzealand.govt.nz as a foundation to build a new digital platform tailored to the ITP and ITO sector. We can also support the sector by sharing our learning to ensure the best possible user experience and customer journey for all international and domestic students.

  • 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.

  • Meet the team: Miranda Herbert

    Hi Miranda. Could you tell us a bit about your professional background?

    Quite a few people who work in education say that they ‘fell into’ education. I’m the same.

    When I was younger I was always interested in languages. I did Japanese right through high school, I decided to continue with it at university. I asked my Dad what other language I should study, and he said I had to learn Chinese because it’s going to be an important language in the future.

    I then spent four and a half years living and working in China, and became quite involved in education. I ended up working for a PTE in New Zealand, and then I moved to the University of Auckland. There I worked my way up to the deputy director of international.

    What has it been like in Beijing during the outbreak of COVID-19?

    I was actually in China when SARS broke out, 20 years ago, too [while at a previous role]. This time seems quite different to then. The level that China has mobilised this year has been quite amazing to experience firsthand.

    It’s been really surreal, particularly during the January and February months. Despite Beijing having a population of over 20 million people, for weeks we saw no-one on the street - you could cross the road with your eyes closed, which never happens here. At other times, it could get quite depressing having to stay in all the time.

    Now, things are starting to get back to normal. It really varies across China, but here in Beijing, businesses are opening again, people are starting to go into the office for work, people are going to restaurants and dining out – while still following physical distancing etiquette.

    We feel really lucky that we were able to stay here, because safety comes first and foremost in China. There’s still a lot of temperature checks, for example, if you order food on the receipt it will tell you the temperature of the chef and the person who delivered it to you.

    Most of Team China is working at home, and will come into the office when they need to. We’re working our butts off at the moment to keep things rolling. We’re involved in digital events almost every day. And although we’re not going out to meet people, we’re working closely alongside our agent contacts and partnership network.

    What would you advise to people trying to conduct business in China?

    You have to be patient and not expect results straight away. You have to nurture relationships. It’s about understanding that cultural difference, because the way China does business is quite different to back home.

    A profile of Miranda wouldn’t be complete without you introducing us to your cats. Could you tell us about them?

    I have two cats, one boy and one girl. They are my babies. I don’t have real babies, I have cats.

    The boy is called Nonga; he’s a real big personality, everyone around here knows him and he’s becoming famous on WeChat! Even though he has stage four renal failure, he still makes us laugh. My girl is called Missy Moo – she’s more shy and is quite happy to stay at home on your lap.

  • 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.

    Watch the Zoom recording.

    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.

  • 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.

  • ISANA NZ – COVID-19 Update

    Catch-up cafés

    ISANA NZ is offering members and friends the chance to catch up and discuss the issues they are facing.

    We have a weekly Zoom networking opportunity on Wednesday mornings from 11am. Join special guests each week including officials from ENZ, MoE, NZQA and INZ. MoE is providing responses to concerns and questions raised by the weekly events.

    Register here for this week’s Catch-up Café, or through our Events tab on the website for upcoming Cafes. Please go to our Good Ideas and Responses page to learn more and access previous Café notes and responses.

    Each week, the general Q&A starts at 11am, and special guests are introduced at 11:30am. Email contact@isana.nz to forward any questions ahead of a session.

    Looking Ahead webinar series

    ISANA NZ is pleased to announce our International education: Looking ahead webinar series.

    This series includes professional standards and self-care, enabling international student integration and work readiness, responding to racism and supporting online learning. Keep an eye out in ISANA NZ mailouts, our website and social media platforms for details of our up-coming webinars.

    Feel Good Friday 

    ISANA NZ would like to acknowledge members who are going above and beyond the call of duty.

    Every fortnight on a Friday we would like to acknowledge these wonderful people through our social media channels and give them a chance to go in a draw for a $100 gift voucher to be drawn later in the year. Please send an 100-word explanation as to why you would like to nominate your colleague and also the logo of your institute (optional) to contact@isana.nz

  • English New Zealand’s new Accredited Pathway Assessment opens up cross-sector collaboration

    Bridge International College, Kaplan International Languages and Languages International are now able to offer the Accredited Pathway Assessment (APA).

    Although there are already agreements between individual English New Zealand schools and universities, the APA puts in place a structure for acceptance of proficiency across all of the universities, English New Zealand executive director Kim Renner says.

    “This will enable greater collaboration between English Language schools and the universities,” Renner says. “With inevitable changes coming for the export education industry due to COVID-19, seamless pathways into further study and close collaboration will become more important than ever before.”

    In Australia, the rate of students who transitioned to further study is significant – according to a report released by the Australian government in January, 54 percent of English language students go on to attend an Australian university or vocational training provider. Anecdotally, we know the rate in New Zealand is much lower. There is room for New Zealand to encourage more of the 20,000 plus students who study at unfunded English language schools in New Zealand to make much more of pathway opportunities.

    Accredited schools will use the APA to attract those students who are interested in studying at a New Zealand university, but may not meet the current English Language standards.

    The APA is also a way that English Language schools can prepare students for New Zealand’s academic teaching style.

    “The assessment is built into a school’s teaching – it’s not a one-off test,” Renner says. “Key goals are to increase cross-sector collaboration and provide a great student experience.”

    This announcement is a result of a Memorandum of Understanding signed by English New Zealand and Universities New Zealand in June last year. The APA is only available to English New Zealand member schools.

  • Around the world in five

    AUSTRALIA

    Australia to consider July entry for international students

    International students may be the first cohort of international travellers that will be exempt from Australia’s current travel ban according to the latest three-step process for exiting lockdown that PM Scott Morrison has outlined.

    Read more

    GLOBAL

    Early lessons from moving ELT online: start with what makes your school special

    Students – and agents as well – are now faced with a wide range of new online language programmes, and are still measuring the quality of instruction and student experience on offer.

    Read more

    CANADA

    Canada: new flexible post-grad work rules

    Canada’s government has announced “flexible” post-graduation work permit rules for international students studying at a distance, while individual institutions have introduced millions of dollars in support funds to help students struggling financially as a response to Covid-19.

    Read more

    JAPAN

    COVID-19 hits student finances, amid calls for wider reforms

    Many students in Japan have been forced to give up university studies for financial reasons, after the country’s coronavirus emergency and lockdown resulted in the loss of part-time jobs and problems with family income.

    Read more

    CHINA

    China's top universities cancel entrance exams for overseas students

    Universities in China have begun canceling entrance examinations for overseas students, citing coronavirus concerns, as the central city of Wuhan reported a new cluster of cases for the first time since its lockdown was lifted.

    Read more

  • Agents key to NZ’s international education recovery

    Education agents have been playing a crucial role in ensuring that international students and their parents have accurate information about the impact of COVID-19 on New Zealand. Many international students will approach their agent for support and advice, ahead of their study provider.

    Looking ahead, agents will play an even more important role in the recovery of our international education sector and visibility of New Zealand as a study destination.

    ENZ’s General Manager – Partnerships & Marketing, Paul Irwin, says our partnerships with education agents will be essential for the international education sector’s recovery.

    “Education agents play an important role in students’ New Zealand education experience and are key information sources for both prospective and current international students. In most cases, they are the main interface between international education providers and students. Working with agents is a significant focus for ENZ and most providers as part of our COVID-19 recovery phase.”

    This view is shared by the sector. For example, at a recent SIEBA (Schools International Education Business Association) webinar, 77 percent of participating SIEBA members said recognised that education agents would be more important to the sector through the post COVID-19 recovery phase, while 33 percent said agents would be important.

    In response to COVID-19, ENZ has upped the frequency of communications and engagement with agents have the information they need to advise current and future students and their families.

    A key tool is AgentLab, ENZ’s special resource for education agents. Over 3500 agents around the world are registered to use AgentLab. It supports agents with regular COVID-19 updates, and a dedicated COVID-19 FAQs section to answer agent queries.

    In addition ENZ has held 11 well-attended COVID-19-specific webinars since February, reaching over 2000 agents. Topics have included measures taken by New Zealand in response to COVID-19, the importance of education agents in a post COVID-19 world and a Schools sector update on the support available to international students during this time.

    Agents also receive a fortnightly update from ENZ’s Chief Executive Grant McPherson, and a monthly electronic newsletter to ENZ’s 305 Recognised Agencies.

    Agents are also supported with market-specific webinars and live social interactions by ENZ’s internationally based teams, who are the first point of engagement for overseas agents.

    ENZ’s Manager – Education Agents, Geneviève Rousseau Cung, education agents are highly engaged with COVID-19-specific resources and communications to date.

    “We have seen 1081 new education agents register on AgentLab since late March (when New Zealand moved to lockdown under Alert Level 4). This is a huge 30 percent increase in registered agents in just seven weeks.

    “We are seeing high attendance for our COVID-19 specific agent webinars, which have emerged as one of our key communication channels with agents as they facilitate direct interactions and let us respond to a range of market-specific queries.”  

    Agent webinars are also a good opportunity for to run quick polls to measure agent sentiment on key topics.

    In a recent webinar, poll results showed that the perception of New Zealand’s COVID-19 response in agents’ countries or regions was overwhelmingly positive (84 percent). Just over 51 percent of agent participants said that their prospective students (with an offer of place to New Zealand institutions) were willing to defer their start date to 2021 (and 38 percent were undecided as yet).

    “At such a critical, unprecedented time, it’s great to see education agents playing a crucial role in ensuring that international students and their parents have access to the necessary information and advice regarding COVID-19,” Geneviève says.

    ENZ is planning a series of webinars involving ENZ teams, other New Zealand government agencies and the international education sector. If you would like the ENZ team to engage with you regarding a potential agent webinar, please get in touch with us at agenthelp@enz.govt.nz.

  • Meet the Team: Lisa Futschek

    Hi Lisa. Could you please outline your own role and the role of the International team?

    ENZ’s International Team delivers on the strategies our organisation sets to best position New Zealand as an education partner in our key offshore markets. It’s a two-way flow with our skilled offshore teams not only delivering a vast array of in-market initiatives, but also providing crucial market intel contributing to the setting of our core strategies and objectives.

    We ask a lot of our teams. Not only do they bring crucial language skills and a deep understanding of the cultural context, but they are also marketers, event organisers, Government-to-Government experts, relationship managers, skilled communicators and more. They need to be as comfortable talking with a Minister as they are with a student seeking an education in New Zealand.

    My role is to set the direction, to coach, mentor, energise, and to ensure that the output of our team plays its part in realising the overall vision of our organisation.

    How is the COVID-19 pandemic impacting your team’s work?

    The impacts of COVID-19 on the International Team’s work have been wide-ranging.

    The first order of things related to the closed borders and the need to cancel, postpone or re-imagine the large number of in-market events that had been planned.

    At the same time, there was a square focus for both ENZ’s off- and onshore teams to support the experience of those international students who remained in New Zealand or had been unable to get here. This included everything from their access to online learning, accommodation needs, physical and emotional wellbeing, support through hardship, visa queries and connection to repatriation flights.

    Throughout all of this, the offshore teams have been heavily engaged in communicating with a full range of stakeholders – students, parents, agents, industry partners, NZ Inc partners and governements – to keep them abreast of developments and to assist in responding to their wide-ranging information needs. 

    Can you tell me a bit about your own professional background?

    I’ve always been interested in international relations. I spent 18 years as a career diplomat with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade (MFAT), living and working in Chile, Germany and New York City.

    Through those 18 years at MFAT, I gained an understanding of New Zealand’s place in the world. There is no doubt that we punch above our weight. Positioning our nation globally through diplomacy is highly rewarding but it is also a long game.

    What I have found particularly satisfying since joining Education New Zealand in 2013 is the short gap between effort and result. We get to see very quickly the impact of our work on thousands upon thousands of people whose lives have been transformed by  a New Zealand education. I’m proud to be able to play a part in that.

    People might think that diplomacy is something which happens exclusively at embassies and at a Government level. But in fact, education diplomacy is part of our organisaton’s DNA. And through our alumni we have created an enormous international network of ambassadors for both a New Zealand education as well as everything else our country has to offer.

    What do you do in your spare time? Can you tell us about the choir you sing in?

    Yes! I’ve been in a local choir called the Doubtful Sounds since 2014. It’s wonderful. It’s complete “me time”.  It’s away from work, it’s away from the family, it’s an escape from the normal preoccupations of life. I find it completely joyful.

    I love making music with other people. We’re not too serious; it’s not an auditioned choir and reading music is not a pre-requisite. I love the fact there’s a whole range of people involved. Our choir master Bryan Crump (of RNZ fame) is a brilliant musician and arranger of music, and is very active in getting us in public. We sing at  weddings, flash mobs in the street, the Fringe Festival, slots on RNZ. We sang last year in the Wright’s Hill gun implacement and at this year’s Newtown Fair. 

What's in it for me?