Conference 2007 – Latest Info

Conference this year will be held in Christchurch at the Hotel Grand Chancellor from 8 to 10 August.  We anticipate that the programme will have enough detail confirmed to open registrations in the next e-news – Look out for it.

Conference is an excellent time for industry to get together and discuss what the current international education scene looks like, common issues institutions and sectors are facing, industry achievements over the last 12 months and the plan of action for the next 12 months.

A brief overview of the programme and timings is as follows:

Wednesday 8 August
10am – 2.30pm Sector Meetings. This will include a Secondary school sector meeting.
If you have ideas for content/topics for these sessions, please contact us

2.30pm – 5pm Workshop Sessions, 3 streams
5.30pm Cocktails and welcome

Thursday 9 August
9am – 5pm Conference Day 1, Plenaries plus 3 streams: Policy, Practice, Research
7.45pm – 1am Annual Conference Dinner
 
Friday 10 August
9am – 4.30pm Conference Day 2, Plenaries plus 3 streams: Policy, Practice, Research

Along with online registrations opening on 26 March 2007, we will be providing a range of accommodation options and information about the annual industry awards.

Book the three days out in your diary now; it is an event that you don’t want to miss.

Upcoming National Survey of International Students

The Ministry of Education has independently contracted Deloitte to administer the 2007 ‘National Survey of International Students’. This research survey was previously conducted in 2003 and provided a range of information about the experiences of international students studying in New Zealand.

International students are a vibrant part of our sector providing immense benefit to New Zealand education providers, educators and domestic students alike. Their global perspective helps raise New Zealand education standards, and the people-to-people connections established are important for young people as they increasingly operate in a global marketplace.

The National Survey is designed to act as a barometer on New Zealand’s international student market providing valuable feedback on students’ satisfaction, experiences, thoughts and perspectives. The information gathered will assist education providers review their services and provision to better support international students in the future.

A pilot survey is currently being trialed to ensure the survey instrument meets the research objectives.

In the coming months, Deloitte will be contacting education institutions throughout the country encouraging participation of each institutions international students in the research.

If you would like to know more about the project before you are contacted, then please call Research Project Manager, Melanie McAtamney of Deloitte on 03 474-8663.

Best Practice methods and techniques in selecting and monitoring homestay providers workshop

In April 2006 ENZ, under EEIDF, commissioned Creation Works/AFS Intercultural Programmes to research best practice in homestay selection and monitoring procedures. A report was provided to ENZ in June 2006 documenting feedback and best practice methods within the Export Education Industry in New Zealand .

Education New Zealand would like to advise that the second phase of this project, workshops to provide training on  recommended systems and techniques for selecting and monitoring home-stays, will be run throughout early May 2007 by the Knowledge Partnership. The promotional flyer on the details of the workshop is accessible here
  
The objective of the project is to provide training on  recommended effective systems and techniques for selecting and monitoring home-stays for (primarily) the Schools and ELS sectors (although all sectors are welcome to attend), and to enable through  these workshops the opportunity to share knowledge and experiences on specific matters to do with home-stay selection and monitoring.

If you pre-registered for these workshops last year, you should be receiving an e mail notification from the Knowledge Partnership requesting your confirmation of attendance.

Please note: this workshop is only available to Code of Practice Signatories.

What’s coming up in PACE?

Taiwan Agents and Students Workshops, 14-17 April
Taiwan Agents & Students Workshops registrations are closing on Friday March 16th. These events are primarily Agent Seminars, for meeting with the top performing agents in Taiwan.  Agents are also invited to bring with them interested students, and allocated time slots are open to the public too.  The events will be held in Taipei, Kaohsiung and Taichung. For more information click HERE or contact Genevieve

Hong Kong Agent Seminar, 20 April - ** FINAL OPPORTUNITY **
Registrations for this event will be closing within the next couple of days, this seminar is an opportunity to meet with Hong Kong agents at a function held at the eye-catching New Zealand Focus Centre.  As well as New Zealand's top performing agents, officials from the Education and Manpower Bureau (EMB) and local NET teachers are also being invited to attend a networking function with participants.  The Hong Kong market is suitable for all sectors, particularly secondary and tertiary as most Hong Kong students aim to achieve at least an undergraduate degree, acquired through senior secondary study. The registration deadline is 5pm Monday March 12th. For more information about the Seminar, click HERE or contact Genevieve

German Inbound Agents, 13 – 24 May
German agents are very influential within all sectors of the full-fee education market. In 2006 the German Agents visit was restricted to Secondary School participation only, but demand from the market has warranted open access for 2007. More information is available HERE or contact Genevieve

Chile & Colombian Fairs 2007, 4 – 11 August
The September 2007 ExpoIngles has been moved to March 2008 to coincide with BELTA fairs in Brazil.   Fairs proposed for Bogota and Medellin (Colombia) for early September have been expanded to include Chile and brought forward to August.  The fairs will be held in the Chilean cities of Santiago, Antofagasta & Concepcion and then will move on to Bogota, Colombia.  Detailed information is currently being collated and should be online soon, in the meantime if you’re interested please contact Karen

Regular Feature - Just the Stats

“I’m interested in profiling on the Student website [www.newzealandeducated.com], but its $695 of my hard earned marketing budget. Why should I?”

We regard a listing on www.newzealandeducated.com as an investment that is well worth your serious consideration.

Traffic to the site has increased strongly over the last couple of years.  In December 2006, the site had 2.5million hits. Hits sound great, but doesn’t tell us much. More interesting is that there were nearly 90,000 unique visits and 325,000 page turns in December '06. Average length of time on the site was 4.2 minutes. The visitor numbers are up by 250% compared to December 2004 (page turn and time spent data is similar).

Interestingly, June is the peak traffic month, corresponding with the Northern hemisphere enquiry cycle. There were over 105,000 visits in June 2006, and an average of 5 minutes spent on the site. This site visit time is excellent for a site that does not have further engagement (eg any online enrolments are done through institution specific sites).

Of this traffic, there was a good flow through to institutions. During 2006 there was a total of 912,000 annual institutional profile interactions from the site. The English language sector is the most popular - there were over 16,000 visits and click-throughs to ELS institutional sites in the month of December 2006, and 204,000 for the year.

We see the website as the lead global marketing tool for awareness raising for New Zealand as an education destination.  In all generic print promotion and other generic marketing, the website is the primary 'call to action' - it serves as the non institutional next step in engagement for the interested student. So it is an integral component of all generic promotion.

Of course, every institution has its own views on marketing expenditure priorities. Having a listing on the website is at your discretion, and you will make a business judgment on that. Even if you do not have a listing, the website is still of benefit to you in raising awareness among prospective students of New Zealand in general, and being available to you as a generic resource.

For a complete statistical report about the New Zealand Educated website, please click HERE.

This is just one of the many statistical questions that are fielded by ENZ daily.  We’re happy to have a crack at any question that comes through to us, and will post one in each e-news edition.

 If you have a question, please email stuart.boag@educationnz.org.nz