 IN THIS ISSUE
|
|
| |
QUICK LINKS
|
|
| |
FEATURED
STORY
|
Is NZ Punching
Above its Weight in Export
Education?
The numbers back it
up. New Zealand’s export education industry is
doing extremely well in respect to the country’s
population and GDP. Recent comparisons with other
English-speaking competitor countries have been
compiled into a briefing paper which you can
access HERE.
By population,
only Australia has more international students on
their rolls. New Zealand comes in a solid second,
well ahead of the UK, Canada and the USA.
When it comes to the role of export educ
ation in the economy, New Zealand is the clear
winner. We are on top in terms of percentage of
the country’s GDP earned by export education, and
also in terms of the value of international
education as a percentage of overall
exports.
While competitor countries’
different methods and definitions for recording
their statistics makes it difficult to chart a
true “apples to apples” comparison, we have looked
at the overall evidence and are satisfied that it
reflects the reality that New Zealand is
attracting more fee-paying international students
for its size than most other nations. Our
challenge is to keep building on those numbers
despite difficult economic
times. | | |
 |
Kia Ora Vince,
Summer may
be just around the corner, but that doesn’t mean that
things are slowing down in the industry. We’ll be
keeping you up to date on all of the latest developments
here and around the world. |
| ENZ in the Media |
Some of you may
have noticed recent news stories about ENZ and the
export education industry. Coverage over the weekend
included the Sunday
Star-Times business section, the Dominion
Post Weekend Edition, the Waikato Times and the
Weekend Press. The latter two ran the same story as the
Dominion Post.
|
Ministers and Meetings
|
ENZ is in the process of
arranging meetings with various ministers who can
influence the policies we all live with.
We are
in the queue for a meeting with John Key. In the mean
time Robert Stevens has made an urgent request to get
some time with Education Minister Anne Tolley before the
Christmas break. We feel that an early meeting is
crucial to positioning export education strongly on the
education agenda.
Robert Stevens is also
proposing a meeting with new Immigration Minister Hon Dr
Jonathan Coleman. This will follow through on a meeting
with then shadow minister Lockwood Smith in July, which
proved very productive. While it’s somewhat unfortunate
that we now have to review with the new Minister
everything that Smith had agreed to in principle, we are
optimistic that we will be able to get the M inister
onside. Issues such as the impact of the Immigration
Advisers Licensing Authority Act, and getting a
commitment of DoL support for offshore marketing will be
on the agenda.
|
| Immigration Advisers Licensing
Authority |
On 31 October Education
New Zealand facilitated a workshop involving a group of
education export providers, the Department of Labour and
the new Immigration Advisers Authority to discuss the
impact that the new Immigration Agents Licensing Act
will have upon the education export industry.
The purpose of the meeting was to work through
the list of issues and questions that were contained in
Education New Zealand’s recent submission to the
Department of Labour. A copy of ENZ’s submission
can be viewed here.
The meeting made real
progress in understanding the issues (on all sides), and
went a long way to addressing the concerns of the
industry. In terms of outcomes, it was clear from the
meeting that there was an understanding and
communication gap in the education sector about the
impact of the Immigration Advisers Licensing Act. In
particular about:
- the definition of "immigration advice" and what it
means in real terms
- the complaints process, and
- the offence and prosecution process
The understanding and communication gap is
leading those working in the education sector, and their
employers to be anxious about what they can and can't do
in their roles and what the likely outcome of them
talking about immigration matters may be.
There is a real fear about the maximum penalty of 7
years imprisonment. Education New Zealand has
strongly argued that those in the education sector are
not generally and usually giving immigration advice,
rather they give education and immigration
information. This argument was endorsed in
the meeting by the Department of Labour and the
Immigration Advisers Authority. In the small
number of cases where immigration advice may be being
given, there was need for thought about:
- whether the individual should become licensed in
their role, or
- where appropriate information could be developed
in conjunction with DoL in a FAQ form to be publicly
available and usable.
At the
meeting the following action items were discussed and
agreed:
- a formal communication will be prepared: (i) to
clarify the difference between education advice,
immigration information and immigration advice ; (ii)
the purpose of the IALA, including a discussion of the
intent and a likely approach to enforcement and
prosecution; and (iii) explain the jurisdiction of the
IAA, and the complaints process; and
- The IAA's Information on how to make (appropriate)
complaints be circulated to the sector.
The abovementioned two communications will
be circulated to the industry via a future
e-news. |
| PACE Update |
Thank you to those who have
sent in registrations for PACE 2009 activities.
Event information and the registration form are online
HERE with further details being loaded
up to the website on a daily basis.
A reminder
that events being held early in 2009, including the New
Zealand Education Fairs in Malaysia and India, Fairs in
China and the North Asian Mission/Agent Seminars have a
registration deadline of Monday 1st December 2008, to
enable planning to get well underway before the summer
holidays. |
| China International Education Exhibition Tour
(CIEET) & New Zealand Education Fair,
China |
28 February – 11 March
2009
In 2008 the CIEET fairs attracted 457
exhibitors and 104,000 visitors, making it the largest
education exhibition in China. CIEET is a
multi-city education tour, for 2009 ENZ have selected
the cities of Beijing, Xi’an and Nanjing to feature the
New Zealand Educated branded ‘NZ Inc’ pavilion. CIEET
provides a unique platform for institutions to showcase
the benefits of their programs to large numbers of
Chinese students and their parents. Leveraging off
the international fairs, a New Zealand only Agent
Seminar and Education Fair has been planned for
Chengdu.
Travellers considering these
activities need to keep the registration deadline of
Monday 1st December in mind, and you can find further
information in the Event Brochure http://www.educ
ationnz.org.nz/secure/marketing/EventBrochureCIEET2009.pdf,
register online HERE or for more information contact
Sarah.
|
| Is NZ Punching Above its Weight in Export
Education? |
The numbers back it up. New
Zealand’s export education industry is doing extremely
well in respect to the country’s population and GDP.
Recent comparisons with other English-speaking
competitor countries have been compiled into a briefing
paper which you can access HERE.
By population, only
Australia has more international students on their
rolls. New Zealand comes in a solid second, well ahead
of the UK, Canada and the USA.
When it comes to
the role of export education in the economy, New Zealand
is the clear winner. We are on top in terms of
percentage of the country’s GDP earned by export
education, and also in terms of the value of
international education as a percentage of overall
exports.
While competitor countries’ different
methods and definitions for recording their statistics
makes it difficult to chart a true “apples to apples”
comparison, we have looked at the overall evidence and
are satisfied that it reflects the reality that New
Zealand is attracting more fee-paying international
students for its size than most other nations. Our
challenge is to keep building on those numbers despite
difficult economic times. |
| Korea eases barriers to foreign education
providers |
(via Ministry of
Education)
Korea is seeking foreign education
institution investment in its five Free Economic Zones
(FEZ) or on Jeju Island. Previously, seed money
from investors of up to KRW 10 million was required;
however this requirement will be dropped under a new
plan proposed by the Korean Ministry of Education,
Science and Technology. There are also plans to ease
regulations to allow more Korean students to attend
foreign institutions in the FEZs.
A number of
universities have announced plans to build campuses in
Incheon Free Economic Zone (IFEZ) near Seoul, and are
seeking partnerships with foreign institutions. One of
these, Yonsei University, has indicated that it will
provide supporting infrastructure to encourage
collaboration with offshore partners at its Songdo
campus.
|
Why the loss of a little-known grant is a
'disaster' for UK research
|
(via The
Independent-UK)
For 27 years a little-known grant
has attracted the brightest research students to
Britain. Now it is being phased out – and the
disappointment is palpable.
Every year, around
£15m is allocated in Orsas grants, each student
receiving the difference between the fees that would
apply to a UK student and the fees for a foreigner – a
gap that can be up to £10,000.
In July, the
Government's university-funding arm, the Higher
Education Funding Council for England (Hefce), decided
to axe Orsas grants after autumn 2010. This follows an
evaluation report into the efficacy of the scheme,
which, Hefce says, showed it was only partly fulfilling
its objective of attracting the best students – as more
than a half of the awards were received by students who
had al ready chosen to study in the UK.
The
Orsas decision is the second blow for British
universities hoping to attract the best researchers from
abroad. Earlier this year the Foreign Office announced
that it was cutting £10m of funding for overseas
research students in a number of categories. Among
programmes hit is Chevening, which will now offer grants
to fewer foreign students
The fear among
academics is that students who would have been helped by
Orsas, and other grants, will now simply end up in
foreign universities.
"At the very time that the
phasing out of Orsas will further diminish what we have
to offer, the US, a number of other EU member states,
and Australia and New Zealand are all developing more
attractive funding packages," says Diana Warwick, chief
executive of Universities UK, the higher education
umbrella body.
|
| E-news is a newsletter for the
Export Education industry, compiled by Education New
Zealand. You can access previous E-news newsletters on
our website at www.educationnz.org.nz .
|
With
Regards.
Education New
Zealand
www.educationnz.org.nz
| |