Message from the CEO
As the long process of assessing and repairing buildings and restoring services continues in Canterbury, ENZ would like to let institution staff and agents affected by the earthquake know that our thoughts are with you.
We are communicating with offshore staff and New Zealand Specialist Agents to keep everyone updated about the situation. Please let us know if there is anything else we can do to support you and your international students at this time. We hope things are back up and running before long.
Depth Market Re-assessment & Schools Workshops
In 2005 Education New Zealand led a market prioritisation exercise with the industry to identify a number of target markets for expenditure of central funds for student centric marketing and related commercial activity. The purpose of this exercise was to:
- halt any potential for fragmentation of ENZ’s limited resources (central funding from the Education Export Levy and the Crown/MoE, and the NZTE offshore staff that are tasked by ENZ) by focussing on a strictly limited number of markets. This way resources could be aggregated towards more of a critical mass rather than fragmented across the entire globe; and
- provide leadership and guidance to the sector in terms of the markets that they should focus their efforts towards. Since ENZ cannot direct institutions towards markets, and inversely is only successful if institutions recruit students from particular markets, then ENZ provided an incentive for institutions (through marketing support – both financial and human resources) to shepherd their efforts towards a limited number of priority markets.
Over the last five years ENZ’s strategy has been well supported, and has become referred to throughout the industry as Education New Zealand’s “Depth, Not Breadth Strategy”. The Depth Strategy targets nine priority markets, as follows:
- China (to a lesser extent Taiwan);
- India (to a lesser extent Sri Lanka);
- South Korea;
- Viet Nam;
- North America (primarily USA, to a lesser extent Canada);
- Germany;
- Thailand;
- Brazil; and
- Malaysia.
When the Depth Strategy was announced in 2005, ENZ undertook to commit to the target markets for a five year period. This planning period comes to an end at the end of 2010.
As flagged at ENZ’s recent conference, between now and 1 November 2010, ENZ is reviewing its Priority Markets. This will be an industry led process, and as an input Education New Zealand will shortly release desk research (within the next ten days via e-news) into the below twenty markets of interest:
China
India
USA
Germany
Malaysia
Nigeria
Singapore
Indonesia
Korea
Morocco
Japan
Canada
Turkey
Mexico
South Africa
Thailand
Brazil
Nepal
Vietnam
Saudi Arabia
In terms of process, following the release of the desk research, ENZ will write to sectoral groups and request that each group advises ENZ of a ranked order of its top ten priority markets for their sector by 1 November 2010. Please note that the markets do not necessarily need to be selected from the markets that will have desk research provided. The sectoral priority markets will then be discussed by the ENZ Board in November and an aggregated list announced in early December.
All sectoral groups apart from the schools are well organised and (with some negotiation and compromise) should be able to develop a ranked order of priority markets. However, in the case of the schools the international staff in schools across the country tend to be more isolated from each other. In this context, ENZ will be convening three one-day workshops of international staff from education export levy paying institutions only to enable schools to debate their priority markets in order to develop a consolidated list for their sector. The workshops will be facilitated by ENZ Board members: Madeleine East, Prue Kelly and Richard Kensington.
The workshops will be held in:
Auckland
13th October 2010,
9.30am – 3.00pm
Sky City Auckland Convention Centre
88 Federal St,
Auckland Room 4
Christchurch
18th October 2010,
9.30am – 3.00pm
Hotel Grand Chancellor
161 Cashel St,
Chancellor 1
Wellington
20th October 2010,
9.30am – 3.00pm
Duxton Hotel
170 Wakefield St,
Duxton 1&2
In addition, we will use this opportunity to hold two extra sessions:
1) Sectoral Sub-Brand Workshop with branding experts, Brian R Richards Ltd. The session is an opportunity for schools to contribute to the review work which is underway as part of the existing New Zealand Educated branding. We will specifically be looking into the feasibility of a sectoral sub brand for New Zealand Schools.
2) Work Programme Consultation Session to provide input into the 2011/2012 work programme for marketing, research and capability development.
Representatives from levy paying primary, intermediate and secondary schools are welcome to attend any or all portions of the sessions. Please indicate your intentions on the registration page.
If you wish to register, please visit our website HERE.
Supporting International Students Resources – Updated with Critical Incidents
These important resources have recently been updated and the new versions are now available on our Research & Resources site HERE. (You must be registered for the Research/Resources site to access this information.)
The resources now contain a section on Critical Incident Management, which includes chapters on policy, readiness, recovery and much more. We would like to thank Marlborough Girls’ College who kindly agreed for their Traumatic Incident Response Plan to also be included.
There are separate versions of this resource for PTEs, Tertiary Institutions and Schools.
Immigration Review Submissions – Extension for Christchurch
Institutions will have received a reminder recently regarding the deadline for submissions on the Review of Student Immigration Policies.
The general deadline for submissions is 5pm on September 14. However in light of the disruption to services in Christchurch, the deadline for institutions in the area will be extended until 5pm on September 17.
Offshore Update: China
From Li Zhi
JJL, one of the biggest education agencies in China is opening up a branch office in Shanghai in October 2010, JJL’s head office is located in Beijing. The new Shanghai office is a further step by the company to tap into the southern and eastern China market.
We are noticing a trend for the larger education agencies such as EIC (head office in Guangzhou), Xintong ‘Shinyway International’ (head office in Hangzhou), Can-achieve and New Oriental Vision Overseas Consulting Co. Ltd. (head offices in Beijing) to open up new branch offices, this is due to the increase in market demand and their established brand names being recognised nationwide. New Zealand industry members may wish to work with agencies who may be better equipped to channel students from their respective branch offices.
One of the largest education agents in the South China Region, Shinyway International, are being very active in promoting New Zealand via events in late October in Hangzhou and Ningbo in Zhejiang Province. Zhejiang Province is one of the wealthiest regions in the eastern coast of China, education in the region is considered to be at a very high level, it ranks high on a nationwide Chinese education indicator. The return of focus on New Zealand education shows an increased interest in the region. We have received increasingly positive feedback about New Zealand recently with big agencies running New Zealand only seminars and promotional events. New Zealand providers should take the opportunity to establish good relationships and commit long term to these focused agencies. The contact details of New Zealand Specialist Agents located in China are available online HERE.
Education New Zealand is planning collaborative New Zealand promotions in Beijing, Guangzhou, Dalian, Xi’an and Nanjing from 12 – 22 March 2011 as part of the 2011 PACE programme. The draft 2011 PACE calendar is available online HERE.
Fresh Numbers
The summaries of statistics by market have been updated to the end of August.
We have also added two new countries to our summaries: Indonesia and Mexico. That means we now have market statistics available for a total of 30 countries.
You can access the new summaries HERE.
Rugby World Cup
It’s still a year away, but at ENZ we’re already starting to plan ahead for promotional activities tied into the Rugby World Cup.
Planning is still in early stages, but with the world’s eyes on New Zealand the opportunity is there to attract more students and show off what our nation has to offer.
We’ll be updating you with more details as our plans come together. In the mean time, if you are planning anything special for next year please let us know about it so we can try to support your activities.
Hong Kong Courting Branch Campuses
Hong Kong is offering cheap land and other incentives to attract foreign universities to its shores. And it is relaxing visa and enrollment restrictions to bring in more international students.
The hope is that an influx of higher-education institutions and undergraduates can bolster Hong Kong's image as a sophisticated, globalized city that is the gateway to China—a status increasingly challenged by Shanghai.
Michelle Li, Hong Kong's deputy secretary for education, says the push to internationalize will also benefit local students, broadening their education and making them more appealing to employers.
As part of the changes, visa laws have been eased so foreigners can stay in Hong Kong and work for a year after graduation. And quota limits on international students attending public universities are being raised to 20 percent from 10 percent.
But perhaps Hong Kong's most ambitious plan is offering land to entice new branch campuses.
"We have six pieces of land in our pocket," says Ms. Li. "I'm sure all of them have bidders, and some of them have more than one bidder."
Starting in the fall, the Hong Kong government will officially offer the largest plot, of more than 100,000 square meters, or nearly 25 acres—enough space to teach roughly 8,000 students—at the bargain price of $1,000 HK, or $129 U.S. The site, known as Queen's Hill, once housed a British military barracks near the border with China. Two more locations will be available in late 2010 or early 2011.
Queen's Hill will be marketed to interested parties around the world by Hong Kong Economic and Trade Offices, which operate essentially as the embassies for this "special administrative region" of China.
While the government wants to bring new players into Hong Kong's higher-education system, it wants the changes to be gradual, says Amy Wong, a senior officer at the Hong Kong Education Bureau. "We don't want to overwhelm the market," she says. "If we proceed too fast, there's a risk of quality being at risk."
Via Chronicle of Higher Education
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