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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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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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.
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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.
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International Student Hardship Fund
Thank you for all the applications we have received.
The Fund has now been allocated and we are no longer able to accept applications.
The Government has established a $1M hardship fund for international students to address urgent, temporary needs, for example temporary inability to access cash or because of reduced part-time employment.
Criteria
We welcome applications from education providers and organisations to apply for grants of up to $20,000 (GST not to be included) to enable you to provide eligible international students with direct financial relief or other support, including food parcels and support towards living costs.
Organisations can apply for grants up to $20,000.
Applications can be made from 21 May until funding has been allocated.
Which organisations are eligible to apply to ENZ for grants?
- Education providers who are signatories to the Code of Practice
- Community groups
- Peak bodies, or
- Other organisations who currently work with international students and have the mechanisms and experience to support international students with hardship requests.
Individual students and education agents may not apply to ENZ to access the fund.
What grants are available?
- Eligible organisations may apply for grants of up to $20,000 (GST not to be included) per request to the fund.
- Grants are one-off; however, the same organisation may make additional requests after using their initial funding (subject to the availability of funding).
What can grants be used for?
The grants may be used to:
- scale up existing student hardship initiatives
- support eligible students through:
- Direct cash grants
- The purchase of resources on behalf of international students, such as food parcels, where this is appropriate.
- The maximum amount that can be applied for is up to $1,000 per international student your organisation is supporting.
- Funds may not be used for:
- Salaries or staff administration costs
- Funding for flights home
- Tuition fees
- Granting individual students support of more than $1,000 in cash or kind.
Which students are eligible for support?
- Grants can only be used to provide support to eligible students.
- An eligible student is:
- A current fee-paying international student, or enrolled as a fee-paying international student as at 23 March
- Currently in New Zealand
- In genuine, temporary hardship[1]
- Not eligible for other government financial support.
- International PhD students paying domestic fees are eligible for the government’s domestic student hardship fund and should be encouraged to seek help from that scheme in the first instance.
Table: Summary of eligible and ineligible students
Eligible students
Ineligible students
- A current fee-paying international student, or enrolled as an international student as at 23 March.
- In genuine, temporary hardship.
- International PhD students paying domestic fees.
- International students who are not currently enrolled or who were not enrolled as an international student as at 23 March.
- International students who are eligible for other government support.
How do organisations apply?
- To apply for grant funding, organisations must complete and submit an online application form to ENZ.
- Organisations will need to provide the following information:
- Their strategy and approach to identifying students in need, including outreach efforts and ensuring eligibility criteria are met
- Estimated number of international students and basic demographics (e.g. age range, sector, nationalities, region)
- Total amount requested, what it will be used for, and how it has been calculated
- The organisation’s resources to ensure appropriate distribution
- Agreement to meet reporting requirements (including publication) and to repay any underspend within 12 weeks of having been granted the funds
- Invoice and bank details for payment.
- Process – Applications are now closed.
- Assessment of applications will be completed within five working days. Approval will be notified by email, as will confirmation of distribution of funds.
- Any queries about the International Student Hardship Fund can be sent to response@enz.govt.nz or raised with Sahinde Pala, Director of Student Experience & Global Citizens at Education New Zealand.
Reporting requirements:
- Organisations will need to report to ENZ on:
- The number of students assisted, and basic demographics (e.g. age range, sector, nationalities, region of New Zealand)
- The type of assistance provided
- How much was provided.
- To demonstrate programme outcomes, and as part of its commitment to ensuring value for money from expenditure, ENZ will publish reports from participating organisations in whole or part.
Closing date
Applications can be made from 21 May, until funding has been allocated.
Further information
Frequently asked questions are available here.
Any queries or concerns about the International Student Hardship Fund can be sent to response@enz.govt.nz or raised with Sahinde Pala, Director of Student Experience & Global Citizens at Education New Zealand.
Thank you for your assistance in helping to support international students currently studying here during these unprecedented times.
[1] Organisations will have the discretion to determine what constitutes significant, temporary hardship in accordance with their existing policies and practices.
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From the CE: A transitional phase
First of all, a big thank you to everyone. Your insight and problem-solving on so many urgent matters, including student wellbeing and repatriation, has been invaluable.
I’d like to reflect quickly on how we’ve worked together so far. Our activities together represent just a beginning on the long road ahead. Within ENZ, we have:
- Created and administered the International Student Hardship Fund, which has allocated $1m to 105 providers and community organisations, assisting approximately 11,000 students.
- Created the Future Focused Programme and invested $1.2 million of reallocated government funds into the future of the industry to encourage innovation.
- Stood up cross-organisation teams within ENZ to focus on student wellbeing and support the repatriation of school-aged students.
- Communicated and engaged intensively with peak bodies, education providers, agents and in-market partners.
- Invested in NauMai NZ and increased our communications to students within New Zealand
- Continued to maintain visibility of New Zealand as a high quality study destination, and
- We’re continuing to work closely with other agencies, who have optimised policy settings to cushion the sector from the impacts of COVID-19 as far as possible.
Of course, a crucial step of the international education sector will be bringing in students.
International students remain a priority group in the government’s planning for any managed border entry agreements. We’re looking forward to welcoming international students into New Zealand again, but we need to make sure we do so in a way that is safe for everyone.
There are many details to be worked through, including practical quarantine and self-isolation arrangements, monitoring processes, and how the costs can be shared by those arriving.
As a result of this complexity, Minister of Education Chris Hipkins has advised our sector leaders that international students will not be returning to New Zealand in July and August this year. He hopes that we will be able to safely welcome small groups of students by the end of the year and begin building up towards 2021.
We need to have and retain public confidence in the managed border re-entry process, before we welcome cohorts of students to New Zealand.
Finally, our work towards a sector recovery strategy continues and I look forward to sharing more with you this July.
He waka eke noa (we’re all in this together).
Ngā mihi,
Grant McPherson
Chief Executive
Education New Zealand Manapou ki te Ao
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Around the world in five
ASIA
New Zealanders see ties with Asia as increasingly important, survey shows
New Zealand’s recovery from COVID-19 will be closely tied to Asia’s, and new research from the Asia New Zealand Foundation Te Whītau Tūhono shows that more New Zealanders recognise Asia's importance to this country.
AUSTRALIA
Looking after international students during COVID-19
Australia risks losing billions in revenue, as well as its international reputation, if it continues to ignore the plight of 500,000 international students.
GLOBAL
Pandemic to redistribute international student flows: report
The Anglosphere’s international education success stories of Canada, Australia and New Zealand can look forward to a foreign enrolment windfall as they brush off the COVID-19 pandemic’s effects more quickly than heavyweights the US and UK, a report says.
UNITED KINGDOM
UK universities share plans for student quarantine
Working on the assumption that travellers to the UK will be required to self-isolate for 14 days on arrival come the new academic year, universities that will offer blended and in-person learning are now planning how to accommodate international students.
GLOBAL
All New Zealand universities continue to be ranked in the top 3% in the world
In the latest QS World University rankings, with all eight were ranked in the top 500, with the University of Auckland coming in first for New Zealand at 81st.
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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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Future Focus Programme seeds innovation
The Future Focus Programme is a new initiative which will provide $200,000 per sector in funding to help peak bodies seed innovation projects.
The school, university, private training establishment (PTE), polytechnic (ITP), English language, and education products and services sectors are all being supported through this programme.
The funding is to be used by peak bodies to develop an innovation plan for their sector, and to initiate innovation projects. Innovation projects are to focus in the areas of product development, online delivery, new business models and the development of innovation capability.
Through this support, ENZ wishes to encourage sectors to adopt new ways of working to mitigate the impacts of COVID-19 or similarly unprecedented events.
“The Future Focus Programme is a tangible way in which ENZ can help support sectors to shape their future in the ‘new normal’ post COVID-19,” ENZ General Manager – Partnerships & Marketing, Paul Irwin, says.
“The programme is additional to our normal activities and is designed with a clear focus on innovation – part of Goal 2 of the New Zealand International Education Strategy. With all the uncertainty we are currently facing, this programme is an opportunity to take stock of what COVID-19 means for how international education can operate in the future and develop new products, services, behaviours and models to help us be more resilient to change.”
“We’re pleased to be working alongside peak bodies to help shape their future focus plans and we look forward to seeing the launch of a number of innovative projects.”
ENZ is working alongside peak bodies as they develop their innovation plans and identify prospective innovation projects. These plans and projects will be agreed over the coming weeks.
Delivery timeframes will vary according to the peak body and the scale and nature of the projects they initiate, but projects are expected to be implemented over the coming 12 to 18 months.
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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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International Student Hardship Fund now fully allocated
The fund first opened for applications on 21 May. It was met with immediate interest by a wide variety of education institutions and community groups.
A cross-ENZ team named Kāhui Oranga was charged with the fund’s administration. They met twice weekly to go through applications and ensure a balanced allocation of funds between regions, sectors and institutions.
Education providers and community organisations are disseminating grants from the fund to international students in the form of cash grants, food parcels and accommodation support.
ENZ Director of Student Experience and Global Citizens, Sahinde Pala, led Kāhui Oranga. She says the government was glad to be able to offer international students tangible support in such an uncertain time.
“At ENZ we talk a lot about manaakitanga – the offering of hospitality and respect to guests. We really want every student that comes to New Zealand to feel valued,” she says.
“It was obvious once the impacts of COVID-19 began to be felt here that we needed to offer our international students most in need extra support during these difficult times.”
Last week, Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters and Minister for the Community and Voluntary Sector, Poto Williams, announced the Assistance for Foreign Nationals impacted by COVID-19 Programme.
This $37.6 million fund will open on 1 July and be administered by the Department of Internal Affairs. International students experiencing serious hardship will be able to apply to this programme to receive support with basic needs such as food and accommodation.
