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• New Zealand universities on show at NACAC annual conference

  Representatives from six universities – Massey University, Victoria University of Wellington, University of Otago, University of Auckland, Lincoln University, and University of Waikato joined forces to engage with hundreds of US high school counsellors. 

  The New Zealand booth was a standout attraction, drawing heavy foot traffic thanks to the ever-popular ENZ Kiwi plush toys, four of which were raffled off to attendees. But while the Kiwi drew people in, it was the conversation about undergraduate study opportunities in New Zealand that kept them engaged.

  Over 100 high school counsellors expressed interest in learning more about New Zealand universities, with many requesting in-person visits to their schools for student and family information sessions. 

  

  The universities and ENZ held an intimate reception for conference attendees at a local flower shop. High school counsellors had the opportunity to learn about New Zealand education offerings while doing crafts with New Zealand ferns.

  ENZ also hosted an intimate reception during the conference, where attendees had a chance to learn about New Zealand and take a part of it home with them, through crafting New Zealand fern boutonnieres (similar to a corsage)  

  ENZ Director of Engagement North America, DuBois Jennings, said that many of the guests were Hawaiian high school counsellors.  

  “This event has continued the strong relationships built during ENZ’s Hawaii Roadshow earlier in the year,” he said.  

  “All New Zealand universities have reported a notable increase in applications from Hawaii following this roadshow,” DuBois added. 

  Participation in NACAC is a strategic move for ENZ, providing a vital platform to strengthen connections with US high school counsellors who are some of the key influencers in students’ college decision-making.      

  By deepening this stakeholder network, New Zealand universities are better positioned to attract more US students to pursue full undergraduate degrees in New Zealand. 

   

• NZ’s education brand remains stable despite border closures

  A recent presentation by Jason Cate of Kantar, who carried out the 2022 annual brand survey for ENZ, considers two broad questions: 

  • How is the demand for international education changing post-Covid 19? 
  • How is New Zealand’s brand as an education destination being impacted? 

  “This programme tracks perceptions of New Zealand as an education destination globally, but also specific association statements and overall sentiment, appeal and attractiveness,” Jason Cate says.  

  “It’s always interesting to see how this develops and changes over time, particularly over the last couple of years, given all the challenges.” 

  More than 4,800 potential students were surveyed online across 11 priority countries, as well as their parents in some markets. The 16-24 year olds surveyed were mostly current students, and all of them were considering further study in an offshore, English-speaking country. 

  Jason Cate says the survey shows the overall nature of demand for offshore education is stable in 2022, and only slightly lower than before Covid-19.  

  The core reasons why students are considering studying offshore haven’t changed: 

  • to live and travel overseas 
  • to meet new people 
  • to enhance their employability. 

  The survey shows there has been a significant reduction in the proportion of students delaying their studies because of Covid-19 (from close to half of students to around one third), but the proportions of students considering both study offshore and at home, or study offshore and online, have increased. In other words, there is a shift in their preferences for the mode of delivery. 

  Across most of our key partner countries, perceptions of New Zealand are relatively constant, with the only change being a small decline in awareness. New Zealand again tussles with Singapore for the fifth strongest brand in student mobility among English-speaking countries. 

  For more details about global demand and perceptions of New Zealand’s education brand in individual markets, you can listen to the full presentation on Intellilab here, by registering and logging in through MaiENZ. 

   

• Virtual events around the world

  Viet Nam: Career fair at Nguyen Sieu School (NSS)

  Representatives from eight New Zealand providers attended a career fair at Hanoi’s Nguyen Sieu School (NSS) last month.

  With no cases of community-transmitted COVID-19 for the past six weeks, Viet Nam has started to return to normal life. Schools have reopened just ahead of the end of the academic year.

  Usually, the NSS Career Fair only allows in-person representatives from foreign institutions. However, thanks to ENZ’s strong relationship with the school, our institutions were represented by proxy – either an education agent or alumnus. A representative from the institution was also permitted to join via video link.

  As a result, New Zealand’s presence was well ahead of our competitors like Canada (with two institutions), the UK (also two), or Australia (three).

  ENZ Viet Nam Market Manager Van Banh says this is a great example of how key in-market relationships will be critical as international education looks to conduct usual activity online.

  “This year’s NSS Career Fair was an exciting example of how we can incorporate digital technology into our in-person events,” she says.

  

  North America: NAFSA eShowcase

  For the first time ever, the world’s biggest B2B international education conference was held entirely online.

  More than 9,000 international educators from over 100 countries were expected to attend the conference in St. Louis, Missouri over 25-29 May before COVID-19 forced organisers to take it to the digital world. In the end, over 2,000 attended the eShowcase.

  Participants were able to visit ENZ’s virtual booth and engage either through chat or live video conversations at designated times.

  New Zealand universities and ITPs had dedicated times to host a ‘Virtual Showcase’, which is a mechanism by which NAFSA exhibitors presented, met or collaborated with attendees via a dedicated Zoom session.

  “The process of moving the largest in-person B2B international education conference in the world online has been a big learning curve, not only for ENZ and the individual booths and attendees, but for NAFSA themselves,” ENZ Director of Engagement – North America, DuBois Jennings, says.

  “With no live, conference-wide chatroom or method to see a list of conference participants it felt isolating at time on the booth, which is very different from the normal, in-person NAFSA conference. However, it has been a valuable learning experience as the international education industry looks for new ways to connect virtually.”

  

  The official NZ CEE schedule.

  China: China Education Expo (CEE)

  In late May, representatives from ENZ, all eight of New Zealand’s universities and the NZIST were offered a unique opportunity to engage directly with students from China and their parents.

  The annual China Education Expo (CEE) is one of the biggest events in the Chinese international education calendar. But ENZ Market Development Manager, Jane Liu, says this year’s engagement through the virtual platform is greater than they would usually expect.

  “Although ENZ has worked with the CEE for years, this is the first time we’ve been collaborated with them online. We can see this being useful to New Zealand institutions even after COVID-19.”

  Each university provided a one-hour presentation sharing their programmes and how they can work with interested students once COVID-19 precautions have been lifted. The NZIST representative also gave a detailed introduction to the reforms the ITP sector has recently gone through.

  The webinars have garnered a combined total of 1000 views, and have been recorded and hosted on WeChat so that students and parents can watch them at their leisure.

• Kiwi students become ambassadors in Beijing

  The students represented three cohorts from Massey University and the University Canterbury. Two of the groups were based at Peking University, while the other had been studying in Hangzhou.    

  This marks the second year in a row that PMSA groups have come together at a function at the New Zealand Embassy in Beijing.  

  New Zealand Ambassador to China, Clare Fearnley, welcomed the visitors and provided an update on the China-New Zealand relationship. Other Embassy staff, representing a range of government agencies from the Ministry of Primary Industries to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade were present to talk to students about their roles and areas of interest. 

  ENZ Regional Director North Asia, Adele Bryant, said it provided a great opportunity to encourage the students to be ambassadors for New Zealand education during their stay in China. 

  “These students are ideally placed to help raise the profile of New Zealand education, as they are great examples of the kind of students we produce – independent thinkers, and creative, innovative and skilled young people.” 

  Massey University’s Head of the School of Humanities, Kerry Taylor, also believes in the value of the programmes to students, both now and in their future. 

  “The PMSA provides an opportunity for our high academic achievers to experience first-hand the dynamism and relevance of China to New Zealand,” said Kerry.  

  “Many will come back to do more study in China or develop business links with China that will contribute to New Zealand’s prosperity.”

  

  A PMSA group from Massey University at the New Zealand Centre, Peking University. The Massey students studied an intensive Chinese Language programme at PKU.

• Grant

• INZ student visa processing update

  Immigration New Zealand’s (INZ) Palmerston North Area Office (PNAO) is coming out of the peak processing period for onshore student visa applications, with the last of the March visa applications still to be processed.

  The standard processing timeframe for a student visa application is 20 working days for an online application, and 25 working days for a paper-based application.

  Kimberley Polata, PNAO Head of Operations, said her team is working on applications received within the last 20 days and is committed to clearing these applications by the end of April.

  Progress has already been made towards this, with PNAO sending out nearly 1,800 visa decisions in the last week alone, she said

  “There are approximately 1,100 visa applications where further documentation or information has been requested from the student, and this is required in order to compete the application.”

  Ms Polata asks that education providers check in with their students who are still waiting for their visa decision and ask them to check their email and online applications for communication from INZ.

• STudy Tour Forum with TNZ at CACIE 3

• Image 2 ONLINE ENZ Website 580x435

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• From the Acting CE: Forward together

  Tēnā koutou katoa  

  Last week we took time internally to reflect on our work over the 2023/24 financial year. So much excellent work has happened over the past twelve months – it was wonderful to come together virtually as an organisation to celebrate the achievements. 

  There are good reasons to celebrate. International students are returning to New Zealand. The latest enrolment figures show that there were 69,135 international student enrolments with New Zealand education providers in 2023. This represents a 67 per cent increase compared to the full year in 2022 and 60 per cent of annual enrolments in 2019.  

  This is positive news for our education sector and good for our communities. 

  A key part of our strategy is to partner and connect and to be an enabler of international education for New Zealand, so I thought I would share with you some recent engagements with that in mind. 

  This past month I had the pleasure of speaking at the opening plenary session of the annual SIEBA (Schools International Education Business Association) conference in Auckland. The theme of the hui was Global Threads Local Ties. The school sector is very important to New Zealand’s international education offering. It is the second largest sub sector after universities, representing about 20 percent of the value of our entire industry and it is where we find the highest economic value and the greatest opportunity to pathway through to other New Zealand providers.  

  Likewise, in early August I was pleased to welcome to our Wellington office a delegation of twenty indigenous students visiting from the University of Toronto. Canada is one of New Zealand’s closest and longstanding international partners and it is pleasing to see indigenous-to-indigenous cooperation between both countries increasing. We are really noticing growing interest in this overseas as you will read in this article here. - Indigenous Internationalisation a hot topic 

  Turning our attention to the next 12 months, in June the ENZ Board approved our business plan for this financial year (1 July 2024 to 30 June 2025). The plan has four clear priorities: 

  • To grow and diversify the number and value of international students studying with New Zealand 

  • Partner and connect to be the trusted voice and enabler of international education for New Zealand 

  • To deliver sector growth through services that are valued by the sector, international students and New Zealand Inc partners, and 

  • Optimise ENZ to be a more efficient and effective Crown Agency. 

   When it comes to delivering valued sector services, the upcoming New Zealand International Education Conference (NZIEC KI TUA) in August will be provide an excellent opportunity to come together as a sector to listen, learn, discuss, contribute, and network with specialists and colleagues. 

   If you haven’t yet registered, I encourage you to check out the conference website. This year it will be held from 6 to 8 August 2024 at Tākina Convention Centre in Wellington.  

   We have a stellar line up of speakers and it promises to be an engaging and informative event. 

   

  Whaowhia te kete mātauranga 

  Fill the basket of knowledge. 

   

  Ngā mihi nui,    

   

  Dr Linda Sissons  

  Acting Chief Executive  

  Education New Zealand Manapou ki te Ao