Speaking at The PIE Live Asia Pacific, Education New Zealand Manapou ki te Ao director of insights and performance, Marie Clark, stressed that New Zealand is just growing in popularity, with the marketplace showing an 11% uplift in 2015.
She acknowledged that some international trainees may also be thinking about Australia. However she was clear that New Zealand’s positioning can not just be reactive.
“We understand that some of our global trainees might have also thought about Australia,” she said. “However our method in New Zealand can’t be to be Australia’s alternative. It has to be that people choose New Zealand.”
That option, she suggested, needs to rest on a distinct offer: smaller sized scale, more powerful community combination, high public assistance and a clear focus on experience and outcomes.
The country is experiencing something of a worldwide education boom, announcing in April that it had struck its research study destination target a decade early. The aspiration for more international students to position New Zealand among their top three research study locations forms part of the nation’s ‘going for development’ strategy, which intends to double the value of worldwide education– significantly backed by New Zealand’s federal government.
Clark explained that New Zealand offers a friendly and welcoming atmosphere for global students– with the large majority of the public voicing their support for overseas trainees remaining in the nation and very high satisfaction among students themselves.
She explained a system formed by an earlier crisis that still looms big: in the early 2000s, Chinese enrolments fell from around 50,000 to 20,000 in just a couple of years. That shock required New Zealand to think far more deliberately about danger, public confidence and the long‑term social licence for worldwide education, she argued.
Our strategy in New Zealand can’t be to be Australia’s alternative
Marie Clark, Education New Zealand Manapou ki te Ao
“That sort of shaped how New Zealand feels about global students,” said Clark. “We’ve had that huge shock before, therefore that sets in context our worldwide education ‘going for growth’ plan.”
Like many countries, New Zealand is seeing growing interest in transnational education (TNE) across all supplier types, including employment organizations. However its policymakers are wary of selling TNE as a simple substitute for onshore study.
“Historically, New Zealand has actually been quite concentrated on trainees coming onshore, but definitely in more current times, suppliers at all different levels … are becoming a lot more thinking about [taking a look at TNE],” she stated.
Clark framed TNE as a method to construct collaborations and extend New Zealand’s instructional reach, instead of playing a pure numbers video game.
Looking ahead, she suggested the core story won’t just be “getting students into the country” however demonstrating long‑term success and graduate results, wherever students eventually live and work.