BUDGET 2009 – WHAT’S IN IT FOR EXPORT EDUCATION?
Yesterday the Government released its 2009 Budget. The Budget contains the following initiatives in the area of international education:
• increasing funding of promotions to attract international students by an extra $2 million in 2009/10;
• retaining the domestic fee scheme for international doctoral (PhD) students and their school age children;
• phasing out the domestic fees scheme for German and French students in Masters level programmes;
• retaining the international doctoral scholarship scheme, but reducing new awards to 10 per year from 2010;
• decreasing the State School International Student Levy from $900 to $420 per student from 2010;
• retaining the Export Education Innovation Programme, but reducing the scale of support from $0.89 million to $0.29 million in 2009/10
• phasing out the international undergraduate scholarship scheme from the start of 2010;
• phasing out Study Abroad Awards for NZ tertiary students from the start of 2010
• reducing departmental spending by the Ministry fo Education on the offshore Education Counsellor network by 25%
Comment:
The Budget contained mixed news for education exporters.
On the one hand it is disappointing to see the scaling back of the export education innovation fund and international scholarships as these programmes that have benefited the industry over a number of years. The practical details of these reductions will be communicated soon.
However, on the other hand, we are delighted with the additional $2 million investment from the Crown into the generic promotion that supports the industry and the partial abolition of the $900 State School International Student Levy. Both of these items are issues that Education New Zealand has lobbied long and hard for. The remaining $420 levy for schools includes no change to the $68 portion that is reinvested back into the industry (approximately $40 of which goes to Education New Zealand).
We welcome the positive support for these items from Hon Anne Tolley, and it is great to see the new Government backing education exports as a growth industry.
The detail and implications of all of these changes will be traversed and analysed at Education New Zealand’s 18th Annual Conference on 6 and 7 August. You will also hear more from the Minister regarding her vision for Export Education when she addresses the conference.
If you haven’t registered for conference, the conference webpage is 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