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Symposium on offshore delivery, Wellington, Thursday 9 June
Do you deliver education products and services offshore? Are you considering venturing in to this aspect of international education and want to know more? Then come along to a one-day symposium in Wellington on Thursday 9 June to explore the opportunities, challenges and value offshore delivery presents.
Jointly hosted by Education New Zealand and Victoria University of Wellington, the symposium will be an opportunity to learn from local and international presenters about their experiences, and engage and share with colleagues in this specialised field. The programme will cover critical success factors, sustainable and collaborative models, quality assurance, explore markets and partners, and consider an online future.
Offshore delivery is a broad church, and includes the delivery of education through offshore campuses or partners, or via online courses.
Global opportunities for offshore education delivery abound, and a good number of New Zealand institutions and businesses are committed to developing their offshore ventures, especially in markets and niches where New Zealand is well-regarded.
In spite of this, it is estimated that only 3 percent of international students enrolled at New Zealand institutions are offshore, compared to 30 percent for Australia and over 50 percent for the UK.
If you are interested in coming along to the symposium please contact Business Development Manager Adele Bryant for a programme and registration details at: adele.bryant@enz.govt.nz or phone (04) 830 0810.
Cities bid international students haere mai
Students from all over the world who are taking the first steps in their New Zealand education journey were extended a warm haere mai in Christchurch and Wellington recently.
A warm Wellington welcome
Around 600 new international students were welcomed to Wellington on Wednesday 16 March at a lively event at Pipitea Marae.
While the weather was cool, the Ngāti Pōneke pōwhiri was warm. The students – some wearing their national dress – were treated to a rousing kapa haka performance followed by a traditional Kiwi barbeque, and were given the chance to capture the moment in a Wellington-themed photo booth and take part in poi lessons.
The Mayor of Wellington, Celia Wade-Brown, welcomed the international students to the creative capital and promoted the opportunities for both study and work in the city.
The arrival of this most recent cohort boosts the international student population in Wellington to more than 5,600, injects an estimated additional $17 million in to the Wellington region’s economy and brings enormous cultural and social benefits to the region’s education institutions and communities.
A colourful Christchurch greeting

Students who have chosen Christchurch as their education destination were embraced in a similar style, at an event hosted by Christchurch Educated on Thursday 7 April.
A pōwhiri at the Te Puna Wānaka marae at Ara Institute of Canterbury set the warm and welcoming scene and was followed up by a greeting from Mayor Lianne Dalziel. During her address, Ms Dalziel acknowledged the important role played by Christchurch’s International Student Ambassadors; and referred to success of the Indian Skills Scholarships.
As in Wellington, the international students had the opportunity to pick up some kapa haka and poi skills.
Canterbury welcomes more than 9,500 international students each year, contributing an estimated $253 million to the regional economy.
Market insights from Saudi Arabia
The most notable changes have included restrictions to the Saudi scholarships programme, and a renewed focus on increasing the provision of private education to meet future growth in demand. As a result, opportunities ahead will be found in in-country education provision, while changes to the scholarship programme provide an opportunity to position New Zealand well for favoured specialist disciplines.
Saudi Arabia is a ‘promote’ market for Education New Zealand. In 2014, 3,246 Saudi students enrolled with New Zealand providers. Saudi students often progress through English language, foundation courses, bachelor degrees and postgraduate qualifications here. Many New Zealand organisations also offer education services in-market.
Scholarships changes
Saudi Arabia has implemented the largest study-abroad scholarship programme in the world, with up to 180,000 Saudi students being sponsored at any one time.
Students have traditionally entered the scholarship programme either by undertaking three to four months privately funded English language study and then receiving a scholarship from the in-country Cultural Mission (the private-entry pathway), or by receiving a full scholarship in Saudi Arabia (the Saudi-entry pathway).
- Private entry pathway changes: In February the Saudi Government announced restrictions on the private entry pathway, which had accounted for the majority of scholarship students globally. This restriction requires students to attend a top-100 university (Shanghai JiaoTong rankings) before being admitted. This route had been paused since 2015 – a factor reflected in New Zealand’s first time student visa statistics, which show a reduction in first-time student numbers from March 2015 onwards (brown versus blue line below).
- Saudi pathway changes: The Ministry has also reformed the Saudi pathway in 2015 by establishing 'your job your scholarship' which links the scholarships to future employment. The timeframes for this scholarship allocation process has been extended to provide for the central management of scholarships by the Ministry of Education (which merged with the Ministry of Higher Education in 2015).
In sum these changes will increase the entry criteria for the scholarships and therefore the overall calibre of Saudi scholarship students, and position New Zealand well for specialist disciplines that are in-demand in the Saudi labour market.
Increasing international and private education within the Kingdom
The recently appointed Minister of Education, Mohammed Al-Isa, has signalled that the Ministry is to review a long-standing ban on foreign universities. The Minister has also signalled in Arabic media that ‘private education will drive growth in the education sector’.
These signals may see growth in the number of private international operators established in the Kingdom. There will also be increasing opportunities for New Zealand providers to meet in-market demand for high quality education provision. Reflecting the importance that the Saudi authorities are placing on international investment, the theme of the April 2016 Ta’leem Exhibition, sponsored by the Ministry of Education, is ‘Investment in Education’.
Education New Zealand’s activities in Saudi Arabia in 2016 include a three-pronged approach to these changing market dynamics:
- Targeting promotions towards private students, e.g. through the English-language promotional campaign which will focus on students studying abroad over the extended Saudi summer
- Working directly with the Ministry of Education in Saudi Arabia, Saudi Arabia Cultural Mission in New Zealand, and sponsor agencies to offer places through the ‘your job your scholarship’ programme, and
- Supporting New Zealand education organisations to increase the delivery of education services in Kingdom, as the Government tilts its investment towards more ‘in-market’ education solutions and delivery.
For further information, please get in touch with your key ENZ contact.
New Zealand School Story released
The New Zealand School Story comprises a video, posters and photography available via The Brand Lab. (Head to the ‘Marketing’ tab and scroll down to ‘Sector Stories’.)
Central to all collateral is the theme ‘Proud Parents’. The video itself tells a genuine, heart-felt and emotive story about how children from all around the world can have the opportunity to flourish in our schools.
It shows we understand the importance of choosing the right study destination, especially for young children, and how much is invested in that the decision. Like the New Zealand Education Story, the School Story has a strong emotional connection, while also reinforcing key messages that promote New Zealand schools. Its target audiences are parents, as key decision-makers, as well as students.
Education New Zealand led the development of this story with guidance from an industry working group comprising the SIEBA Establishment Board and the ENZ School Sector Reference Group. Advertising agency Clemenger BBDO produced the material.
The story was launched at ENZ’s seminar series in March at locations around the country. If you haven’t seen it yet, head to The Brand Lab now and have a look.
New Zealand and Korea: new opportunities
When the Korea New Zealand Free Trade Agreement (KNZFTA) came into force on 20 December it included three education and training-related programmes of interest to New Zealand’s international education industry.
The agreement included three education and training related programmes:
1. The Korea New Zealand Agricultural Cooperation Scholarships (KNZACS) – six postgraduate scholarships, two each in the areas of agriculture, forestry and fisheries.
2. A schools visit programme – 150 short-term high school scholarships each year for three years.
3. Primary Sector Training Visas (PSTV) - 50 visas allocated each year.
The first two opportunities are scholarship programmes jointly funded by the New Zealand and Korean governments and a Memorandum of Agreement has been signed between ENZ and the Korean Agency of Education, Promotion and Information Service in Food, Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (EPIS) to implement the arrangements.
Agricultural cooperation scholarships
This postgraduate scholarships programme will provide for six scholarships to be awarded to Korean students to study in New Zealand. Four PhD scholarships will be awarded in 2016 in the fields of forestry and agriculture. Two further scholarships in fisheries will be awarded in 2017 and are open to both PhD and Master’s programmes.
An independent expert panel has been established to select applicants for the first round of the scholarship, with advertising of the scheme to commence in Korea in April. Applications will close on 8 July.
For further information on the scholarships, please contact Christine Roberts at ENZ.
Schools visits programme
The schools visits programme will see 150 high school students from rural regions of South Korea selected to come to a rural or semi-rural areas of New Zealand for an eight week period from July this year.
Canterbury, Waikato and Nelson-Marlborough have been chosen to participate in this programme. Ten schools in each region will host five students each.
The Schools International Education Business Association (SIEBA) will operationalise the programme on behalf of ENZ. If you are a school in the above regions, a Code signatory, a member of SIEBA, and wish to be involved in this initiative we encourage you to contact SIEBA.
Primary sector training visa (PSTV)
The New Zealand government has established an annual quota of 50 primary sector training visas which allow the Korean government to place students with New Zealand training providers in the areas of agriculture and fisheries.
The training programme will involve three months’ English language and vocational training in relevant courses, followed by up to nine months’ paid internship placement in a New Zealand work place.
ENZ is not involved in the implementation of this programme, however we are able to introduce interested and experienced providers to EPIS for programme development and implementation.
The Korean Agency of Education, Promotion and Information Service in Food, Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (EPIS) is currently seeking interested providers for the fisheries programme. Eight students are allocated for this stream. If your institution is able to offer a three month English and fisheries training programme, and have established relationship with fisheries workplaces for a minimum of six months’ paid internship placement, please get in touch with Cecily Lin who can connect you with EPIS.
Preliminary information is provided below:
1. What are the academic backgrounds of these students?
The students will be either current students in fisheries high schools or universities, or recent graduates from these institutions within the last two years. The students’ majors will be directly relevant to fishery studies.
All students will be aged 18 or over.
2. What are their levels of English proficiency?
The applicants will be required to demonstrate an appropriate level of English to communicate with their local employer and teacher. EPIS will grant scholarships to students via international certified English tests e.g. TOEIC, TOEIC SPEAKING, OPIC.
3. What is the intended outcome of the three months’ training programme?
To achieve an appropriate level of job performance skills in their work and improved English language skills.
4. What is the intended length and level of internship?
At least six months immediately after the training.
5. What is the expected level of payment to the students during the internship?
The payment must be at the New Zealand minimum wage or above.
6. What are the requirements for participating education providers?
Providers must be Category One.
Above: The EPIS and ENZ teams.
New approach for Korean middle schools
The Korean government wants to improve levels of student happiness, and move on from students validating their success and self-worth only in terms of academic performance. A priority is to support students to pursue “non-core learning areas” (such as music, arts, physical education, career exploration, club-oriented activities, etc). Each school will now designate a semester that is exam- and test-free to allow students to experience a wide range of these activities.
This approach represents a big change in the Korean education environment. To date these students have relied heavily on simple memorisation and rote learning instead of thinking creatively or critically. The government now expects students to freely discover their competencies and capability, free from the stress associated with exams. Korean President Park Geun-hye describes this initiative as a “key task to fundamentally change Korea’s education system”.
Under this new initiative, schools will teach students using diverse and engaging methods such as discussion, experiments, outdoor activities and team projects. Opportunities for students to engage with activities that may inform their thinking about future career options and/or future subject choices is also encouraged.
The initiative began as a pilot in September 2013 with 42 Korean middle schools (1 percent of all Korean middle schools). It was expanded in 2014 to around 800 schools (25 percent), and to 1,500 schools in 2015 (nearly 50 percent). This year, all 3,204 middle schools – and their 1.5 million students – will implement this approach.
Opportunities for NZ schools
This new way of working not only requires a significant paradigm change in thinking for educators and parents, it also requires Korea to develop new infrastructure outside the classroom. It may therefore take some time to fully develop.
This new initiative presents an opportunity for New Zealand schools; two groups of Korean parents may be interested in sending their children to study abroad during the exam-free semester:
1. Families that wish to take advantage of the New Zealand curriculum, teaching expertise and existing infrastructure in terms of these broader subject areas (especially opportunities to learn outside of the classroom that are available at New Zealand’s intermediate schools); or
2. Families that have a more traditional Korean academic education preference and wish to provide their children with an intensive learning experience (such as significantly develop their English language skills).
New Zealand schools may therefore wish to reframe their marketing collateral for parents to demonstrate the strengths of their school’s programmes to deliver quality educational outcomes for Korean middle school students during these exam-free semesters.
FAQs
What age and year level are Korean middle school students?
Students in Korea start school at age seven, rather than five, the usual age in New Zealand. Korean middle school students are in years seven and eight and aged 13-14 years. The table below compares the age and year of the two school systems.
What are the Korean school semester dates?
Korean school year is divided into two semesters, running from 1 March to mid-July, and from mid/late August to February.
Who decides which semester will be exam-free? Will it be the same semester for all schools in a region, for example?
Individual principals, in consultation with their school staff decide which semester will be selected as the ‘exam-free’ semester. This could be any semester between the first semester in the first year and the first semester of the second year.
Would this be an opportunity for students to spend the whole semester away from Korea, or are we talking about short (say 2-3 week or 4-5 week) programmes for groups?
This will likely be predominately an opportunity for individual students to study for a full semester in New Zealand.
That said, it is possible that schools with MoUs with Korean schools could promote an exchange or short course study abroad programme, but New Zealand schools who are interested in this should carefully canvas existing sister schools first to confirm whether this approach would meet the requirements.
What does experiential learning mean in Korea?
The following four types of activities have been recommended by the Korean Ministry of Education:
- Topic of interest: students choose topic(s) of interest and participate in a programme of activities around the topic, such as: entrepreneurship, design, animation, film, barista skills, smartphone app development, robotics, cooking, science etc.
- Arts and physical education: students undertake activities that are not part of their regular school curriculum such as: participating in a musical or in a band, curating, industrial design, or physical education activities such as sports leisure industry experience or exploring career options around soccer, dancing etc.
- Club activities: student clubs can be organised by students around topics of interest. These could be linked to other activities such as sports, career or volunteering such as a hospital volunteering group of 20 students who go to local hospitals to help out.
- Career: students discover what employment options await; giving a chance for them to begin thinking about the sort of work they would like to do in the future and to gather information that will help them make good decisions about the courses they will undertake when they enter secondary school. This could include going into workplaces to experience, observe etc. and could also include a career counselling component.
The New Zealand curriculum, teaching techniques and education outside of the classroom experience and infrastructure appears to be a good fit with this initiative.
Joint initiative supports school group visits
To make the most of every opportunity to grow international education in schools across the country, Education New Zealand (ENZ) and the Schools International Business Association (SIEBA) have established a ‘clearing house’ for school student group visits.
There is increasing interest from such groups in visiting New Zealand, particularly from Japan, China, Thailand and Korea. Schools aren’t always able to accommodate these visits however, so ENZ and SIEBA are working together to channel the enquiries through a clearing house that aims to say ‘yes’, as a starting point, to any request. The clearing house then works behind the scenes with its members to identify schools that are keen (and have the capacity) to host, determine appropriate pricing for the visit, and ultimately improve the experience of, and bring efficiencies to, group visits to New Zealand.
ENZ is promoting the SIEBA clearing house service to its in-market networks, including agents and schools who are considering New Zealand as a destination for school group visits.
The service is another ‘value add’ by SIEBA and is free to its members. If you are a school (irrespective of whether or not you are a SIEBA member) that receives requests to host a group but is unable to, ENZ asks that you forward the request on to SIEBA. For more information on the clearing house please contact groups@sieba.nz
In the 17 February issue of E-News, we let you know about the Ministry of Education’s new online form for state and state-integrated schools to make it easier to register visiting groups of international students. Find out more about this here.
New code for student care established
You are invited to contribute to the development of guidelines that will accompany the new Code.
Launched by Minister Joyce on 10 March, the new Code better reflects the outcomes expected by students and their families, and the high standards of student support that our industry seeks to maintain.
Find out more about the Code and the new contract disputes resolution scheme on the Ministry of Education’s website here.
As the administrator of the Code, NZQA is inviting our industry to contribute to the development of guidelines to help providers understand, in practical terms, what being a Code signatory involves and offer best-practice examples of pastoral care of international students.
Ensure your voice is heard as NZQA drafts these guidelines. As an industry we want to have a high bar of expected practice when it comes to the pastoral care of students. The guidelines should demonstrate examples of what good practice looks like and what, as an industry, you see as the minimum that should be expected.
The Ministry of Education, along with NZQA and Education New Zealand would like to acknowledge the important contribution many of you made to the development of the new Code by sharing your ideas and suggestions throughout the consultation process. It is through this sort of industry participation and commitment that New Zealand continues to be at the forefront of best practice in international student care.
We encourage you to take part in developing the guidelines.
Around the World in Five
USA
Recognising the need for Americans to improve their international awareness, this article views study abroad as a “solution” to American foreign policy isolation. The article discusses the imbalance between the number of international students who study in the US (975,000) and the number of US students who study overseas (304,000), the Generation Study Abroad initiative that aims to double the number of US students who study abroad (and which ENZ is a signatory to), current US government support of study abroad and ideas around potential policy changes to further support study abroad.
Read more

China
During the National People’s Congress (NPC) and Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) annual sessions in March 2016 (called the “Lianghui”, or “Two Meetings”), it was identified that skills in the high-end manufacturing industry, the science and technology service industry, IT, the cultural products and creative industries and the finance industry will likely become the most sought-after over the “13th Five-Year Plan” period (2016 – 2020).
Read more

Taiwan
The number of Taiwanese people with a college, university or other type of higher education degree has increased to 5 million (42.68 of the population) in 2015, according to the latest statistics released by the Ministry of the Interior (MOI) on Saturday. This is higher than the OECD average.
Read more

Brazil
Jose Celso Freire, head of the international office of Sao Paulo State University (UNESP) and also president of the international education association of Brazil, FAUBAI, is optimistic about the future of the Science without Borders scholarship programme. Mr Freire said, “I don’t believe they will just cut the programme, but there’s a huge push that scholarships will be more focused on postgraduate studies.”
Read more

Vietnam
Transnational education, study abroad and opportunities for collaboration were all on the agenda at an international education conference on integration in education jointly held last week by the Association of Vietnam Universities and Colleges (AVUC) and the Vietnam International Education Consultants Association (VIECA). Held at the Government Guest House Hanoi, the one-day conference welcomed international education experts from both provider and agent sides of the industry and was attended by more than 200 AVUC members, foreign embassy officials and representatives from several government ministries.
Read more
EdTech World Tour in New Zealand
The Franco-German researchers have been assessing global edtech trends and ecosystems which support edtech adoption and innovation, and will present their findings to the EdTechXEurope conference in June.
While the US dominates the edtech sector Svenia and Audrey were curious to find out and report on what is happening in other parts of the world. Their Edtech World Tour started in France in October 2015 and included the United States, Chile, Australia, Korea, India and South Africa.
Education New Zealand Business Development Manager, Adele Bryant, hosted Svenia and Audrey’s visit to New Zealand from 7-14 December 2015 between the Chilean and Australian leg of the tour. During their time here, they visited education institutions, edtech companies and government agencies in Auckland, Wellington and Dunedin, recording what they saw and heard on their social media platforms.
From an inspiring Point England School in Auckland, to a Wellington edtech community meetup, and on to Dunedin’s ADInstruments and its high quality life sciences educational products, Audrey and Svenia were welcomed and impressed by New Zealand’s approach to using and developing edtech.
Audrey and Svenia made the following observations from their time in New Zealand: “New Zealand has been of great inspiration to us as we feel the country has understood the way Edtech has to be implemented. No need to roll out devices and new edtech tools if neither the infrastructure nor the teacher training is there.
“The combination of the government’s efforts – together with Network for Learning – to bring high speed internet connection to all New Zealand schools and the work of MindLab in training New Zealand teachers in new technology has a huge potential to make New Zealand the next model for successful edtech use in schools.”
At each call they asked the same question “What does edtech mean to you?” The resulting videos have been uploaded to their website, providing insights into the different perspectives of teachers and developers. View a compilation of the New Zealand videos here and go to the tour’s Twitter feed to see more about the whole tour.
In the New Zealand newsletter they compiled after their visit, Svenia and Audrey noted that “New Zealand’s high quality and innovative education system has proven a perfect ecosystem for Edtech when combined with its entrepreneurial and creative culture”. You can read about their time in New Zealand visit here.