Welcome
Kia ora,
Excitement is building here at ENZ as we get ready to head down to Christchurch next week for Conference and the NARIC Admissions Workshops. We’re looking forward to seeing several hundred of you there!
2010 Conference - Last Chance to Register!
The 2010 New Zealand International Education Conference is going to be the biggest in our 19 year history! Registrations will close soon, so if you are still waiting to register, now is the time. Click HERE to register.
While we’re expecting large crowds, we’re confident that this year’s venue, the Christchurch Convention Centre, has enough space to accommodate us all. It’s a great facility, right in central Christchurch.
The Convention Centre is also hosting our Industry Cocktail Dinner on Thursday evening. It will be a great networking opportunity, attended by our visiting agents from Thailand and Vietnam. For those wanting to let their hair down at the end of the day, we have music from The New Entrants, a group of Christchurch locals who play everything from Elvis Presley to Good Charlotte. You can dance the night away, or enjoy more peaceful conversation in our quiet zone.
We’re also offering two other great networking events. The first is our casual welcome on Wednesday evening at Dux de Lux for drinks and nibbles. This event is open to delegates at the NARIC Admissions Workshops, as well as Conference. Also, on Friday following the final breakout sessions we will have a Closing Function at the Convention Centre. If you don’t have to catch a flight right away, be sure to drop by for a glass of wine.
This year’s Conference programme is packed with informative sessions for every sector. You’ll hear from Hon. Steven Joyce about the government’s plans for international education. Hon. Bruce Baird will give us his expert review of Australia’s recent challenges. Nigel Bickle from Immigration New Zealand will talk about cooperation between INZ and the industry to improve outcomes for international students. We also have several top researchers presenting their findings on Saudi students in NZ, vocational training opportunities in China and more. ENZ staff will have updates on our planned activities for the coming year including online promotions, offshore events, and agent training.
The latest programme can be viewed online HERE.
The contributions of our conference sponsors allow us to keep our registration prices reasonable, and offer you a high quality event. This year we welcome a new platinum sponsor – ANZ Bank.
Other sponsors for the 2010 New Zealand International Education Conference are listed on our website. Be sure to visit their booths and find out more about their services.
Congratulations “New Zealand Agent of the Year”
Education New Zealand is pleased to announce the winner of our inaugural New Zealand Agent of the Year Award.
Mr. Alex Lee is from Hai Thong Education and Travel Consulting in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. As the winner of this award Alex will be attending the New Zealand International Education Conference in August and going on a short sight-seeing trip in New Zealand.
Alex is a trained New Zealand Specialist Agent who is committed to sending high quality students to NZ.
During the process we received great support from institutions and we would like to thank everyone who submitted a nomination.
You can find contact details for Alex, and our other Vietnamese New Zealand Specialist Agents here on our website HERE.
Be sure to make Alex feel welcome when you see him at Conference!
PACE 2010 Update
New Zealand Education Fair, Seoul, Korea, 30 & 31 October
The New Zealand Education Fair in Korea is a flagship New Zealand event. The event provides an opportunity for marketers to raise their profile, recruit students, maintain relationships and meet with active agents in the market.
In 2009 1,681 visitors pre-registered their attendance online and a similar number visited the fair over the two days, the event was a huge success and we look forward to building on that outcome in 2010. Click HERE to view the special E-news report on last year’s event.
For 2010, the official fair website profiles the participants that have registered so far, with their logos and links to their websites on the ‘participants’ page HERE. The Fair will be held at the Grand InterContinental Hotel this year, and like last year, we will look at hosting a networking evening for agents and institute representatives.
There are only 8 spaces left, so be quick to register.
Korea is still our second biggest market for international students, click HERE for the latest statistics showing the trends in numbers of students studying in New Zealand from Korea.
For further information including registering for the events, please click HERE or for the post event report and market information please click HERE - you will need to be logged in to the site to view this page contact or please contact Rahael.
New Zealand Education Fairs, Sri Lanka, 18 September
Hurry, don’t miss out! Registrations are still open for the fourth annual New Zealand Education Fair in Sri Lanka. It will be held at the Hilton Colombo on Saturday 18th September. Student numbers from Sri Lanka have been gradually increasing with this year’s data showing over 50% more first time student visas being approved by INZ.
Sri Lanka is a tertiary market with good opportunities and with a key group of core New Zealand Specialist Agents.
For more information and to register please visit HERE or contact Laurette.
UK Tightens Immigration, Sidesteps Process
In a move that sidesteps the UK Court of Appeal and the Houses of Parliament the British government has given just 24 hours' notice of a change to immigration law.
The change bans adult students from coming to the UK to study English or any other course below degree level for more than six months, unless they have passed a specified intermediate English qualification at B1 level on the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR).
A new list of qualifications comes into effect from 12 August; the only ones accepted for entry are TOEFL, IELTS, the Pearson Test of Academic English and Cambridge ESOL exams. Among the qualifications no longer accepted is TOEIC, the world's largest English language exam, which is taken by over four million candidates a year and dominates in Korea and Japan, the two largest markets for English language courses in Britain.
The government laid the new immigration rules before parliament just 24 hours before implementation and three days before the beginning of the summer recess. It also comes at the peak time for student applications for courses for the next academic year. The House has forty days to disagree with the judgment, in which case the government must amend it, but this is unlikely to happen before autumn. Meanwhile, thousands of students will be rejected because they do not have the right language level, or because they do not have the correct qualifications.
The move follows two important rulings on the UK's student immigration policy by the British courts. In the first case, known as Pankina, three Lord Justices of the Courts of Appeal ruled, in what they described as a question of 'constitutional importance and real difficulty', that amendments to the immigration rules must be laid before parliament. In the second case, brought by language-centre association English UK, the Judge also ruled (following the precedent set in Pankina) that the language levels could not be increased to B1 without a negative resolution procedure (the forty-day period above) being implemented.
Via English Language Gazette
TOEFL Testing Halted in Iran
The Educational Testing Service has announced that it is temporarily suspending registration for its tests in Iran, including the popular Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL), in what may be one of the first tangible effects of the new sanctions levied against the country by the international community.
Experts and Iranian expatriates were appalled, saying that if the sanctions prohibited Iranians from studying abroad, they would hurt precisely the kind of outward-looking young Iranians the West would like to help.
In an interview with the Iranian Mehr news agency, Ibrahim Khodai, an official at the organization that manages student testing in Iran, said the organization had run into problems paying registration fees to the company, and that currently students could not take the test.
However, he said that the test’s cancellation was unrelated to the latest sanctions against Iran, and he instead cited “problems we’ve had in paying registration fees to the E.T.S., an American organization.”
The United Nations Security Council approved a fourth round of sanctions against Iran in June. The resolution, which aims to press Iran to halt its nuclear enrichment program, mainly affects military purchases and financial transactions of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, which has been linked to the country’s nuclear program.
President Obama signed into law additional unilateral sanctions, including restrictions on foreign banks that do business with the Revolutionary Guards or other blacklisted Iranian institutions.
A State Department spokesman, Philip J. Crowley, said the government was “exploring whether there are alternative mechanisms” to allow E.T.S. to continue its work in Iran. “Our intent remains to apply pressure on the Iranian government without placing an undue burden on the Iranian people,” he said.
Via New York Times
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