Welcome
Kia Ora,
Welcome to the latest edition of E-news. We hope it helps you to keep up with all of the news affecting the industry both directly and indirectly.
Conference 2009
Many of you have been anxiously asking for more information about Conference.
We appreciate your patience and a special Conference E-news will be coming your way very soon.
Fresh Numbers
With the spectre of a global recession lingering over everyone’s heads, the ongoing question is “how are we doing?”
The most recent statistics on first-time visas are encouraging. We’ve compared the year-to-date up to April for the years 07/08 and 08/09. In almost all of our key markets, new starts appear to be on the increase. We are seeing a small improvement in China and South Korea, our top two markets, and even Japan appears to be holding steady. The big movers at this time are Saudi Arabia, Vietnam, and India.
The chart below summarizes the findings for the main markets. We have also updated the individual market summaries on our statistics page.
| Fee Paying Student Stats - May 1, 2009 | ||||
| First time visas by nationality (fee-paying students only) | ||||
| (Immigration New Zealand, May 1, 2009) | ||||
| Country | Year to Apr '08 |
Year to Apr '09 |
Difference |
% Difference |
| China | 2881 | 3055 | 174 | 6% |
| South Korea | 3676 | 3970 | 294 | 8% |
| Japan | 1704 | 1727 | 23 | 1% |
| India | 2919 | 4108 | 1189 | 41% |
| Saudi Arabia | 404 | 944 | 540 | 134% |
| Germany | 1230 | 1515 | 285 | 23% |
| Thailand | 648 | 780 | 132 | 20% |
| Brazil | 676 | 830 | 154 | 23% |
| USA | 1456 | 1391 | -65 | -4% |
| Malaysia | 629 | 675 | 46 | 7% |
| Vietnam | 220 | 403 | 183 | 83% |
| All countries | 20173 | 23549 | 3376 | 17% |
Immigration Policy Change
Immigration Minister Jonathan Coleman announced a change to the working holiday visa scheme last week. Under the new rules, they have eliminated the limitation that only one short course of study (lasting less than three months) can be undertaken by someone on a working holiday visa. While the three month limit still applies, people on these visas can now take multiple short courses as long as they do not cumulatively exceed three months of study.
At this time, the same change of policy has not been applied to people on visitor visas.
New Zealand has working holiday agreements with 30 countries, and the minister has suggested that on a country-by-country basis there may be changes negotiated in the future which allow study of up to six months while on a working holiday visa.
We will update you regarding any further developments. You can see the Minister’s announcement HERE. Education New Zealand sent out a press release following the announcement. You can read our release HERE.
Swine Flu Update
After the initial media storm, it appears that worries about “swine flu” or Influenza A-H1N1 are beginning to calm. The number of confirmed cases in New Zealand remains at seven, and fears of uncontrolled spread are proving unfounded.
On April 30, Education New Zealand issued a statement to our offshore representatives to give them a clear, hype-free picture of what the situation was in New Zealand at that time. This was passed along to concerned agents, parents, students and media. You can read it HERE.
Unfortunately in some cases the damage was already done. Several short stay student visits from Japan were apparently cancelled due to fears that New Zealand was not safe. At least one exchange trip to Japan was also cancelled after the students were told they were not welcome due to fears of infection.
From the information we currently have, there have not been many long-term students who have cancelled plans to come to New Zealand, or left New Zealand early due to influenza concerns. If you have experienced this at your institution, please let us know so that we can better track the effects of the pandemic scare on the industry.
What’s in a Name?
A few institutions have recently been contacted by a company called Education New Zealand 2009 Limited. This is one of several companies with names that are very similar to ours. None of these other companies have any formal association with us, or are endorsed by us.
Just for the record, we are officially known as Education New Zealand Trust. The other companies that we are aware of are Education New Zealand International Limited, Education New Zealand (1993) Limited, Education New Zealand 2009 Limited, and Education New Zealand Pty Limited.
If you have been contacted by an organization calling itself Education New Zealand and aren’t sure whether it’s us, please don’t hesitate to contact us and check via educationnz@educationnz.org.nz.
Indians Test Their “Kiwi IQ” for a Free Trip
Education New Zealand is currently running a contest in India which will see three lucky students (aged 18-25) win a tour of New Zealand next month. Students in India are invited to test their “Kiwi IQ” by answering multiple choice questions about New Zealand, and then write a short essay on why it is a great place for students.
The contest will close on May 31, 2009. Interested students should go to www.kiwiiq.com. The contest is only open to students currently residing in India, and holding a valid passport.
Internationalisation Starts with Staff
(via Inside Higher Ed)
At a round table discussion at the Institute of International Education's Washington offices coinciding with the release of the institute's new book, Higher Education on the Move: New Developments in Global Mobility, participants discussed trends and trajectories not only in student mobility, but in scholar and institutional mobility, as well.
Participants often described the three phenomena as interconnected, with scholar mobility driving institutional mobility and institutional mobility driving student mobility. Sabine O'Hara, executive director of the Council for International Exchange of Scholars and vice president of IIE, described scholar mobility as "maybe a little overlooked" in terms of its impact on students and the overall international character of a college.
Her chapter in the book cites data from a 2007 study at Seton Hall University finding significant correlations between time spent abroad and the international content of a faculty member's teaching and research. "Faculty who spent one to two years abroad are almost twice as likely to incorporate international themes in their courses as those who spent no time abroad; and faculty members who spent more than two years abroad were nearly three times as likely to incorporate international perspectives into their courses. Faculty members who spent time abroad are also three to five times more likely to have a research agenda that is international in scope. In fact, time spent abroad proved more influential than being foreign-born or than experiencing institutional pressures to internationalize."
More broadly, the opening chapter of Higher Education on the Move depicts a world in which eight countries -- the U.S., United Kingdom, Germany, France, Australia, China, Canada and Japan -- host 72 percent of the world's international students, but in which other, traditionally sending countries are also emerging as destinations.
"Newer host countries such as China are seeing rapid increases in the numbers of international students. Several other countries in the Asia Pacific region -- Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore and New Zealand, to name a few -- have stepped up their efforts to internationalize and to attract more international students. Even though this has resulted in a somewhat smaller market share for the U.S., we believe that this is a positive development as it has brought more countries into the field of international education and has changed the dynamic between sending and receiving countries from a unidirectional 'brain drain' type of mobility to one of true mutual exchange," according to a chapter co-written by Rajika Bhandari and Peggy Blumenthal, both of IIE.
Read the full article HERE.
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