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Apply on Behalf explained
The service, which goes live early next week, will allow third parties to lodge visa applications on behalf of students.
Different versions of the flyer have been produced for education agents applying offshore, and for education providers.
Education agents are legally allowed to provide immigration advice to offshore student visa applicants only. Education providers can help students complete and upload the forms online, but they are not allowed to provide immigration advice.
To use Apply on Behalf, education agents and providers need to create their own Immigration ONLINE account on the Immigration New Zealand website.
The account shows a summary list of applications and PDF versions of application forms and supporting documents that third parties submit to Immigration ONLINE on behalf of students.
A third version of the information flyer, for students, updates the one produced when online applications became available for students last August.
Later this year, eVisas – passport-free and label-less visas – will be available to students from visa-waiver countries (these are countries whose citizens do not need a visa to travel to New Zealand).
Also later in 2015, education providers will be able to view their students’ visa status through Immigration New Zealand’s VisaView service.
Download the online application flyers:
South Canterbury welcomes Thai agent
What was the purpose of Pear’s visit to South Canterbury?
Education South Canterbury is working on developing an MOU with Thai schools introduced to us by Pear. She was in South Canterbury specifically to familiarise herself with our schools and to experience the region as the students do. She visited each of Education South Canterbury’s member schools and met with students at each one.
How did Pear’s visit fit in with Education South Canterbury’s goals?
Thailand is a focus market and an important and valuable partner for Education South Canterbury.
In the Education South Canterbury strategic plan we are working to develop capability and support the government goals for 2025.
As we are developing an MOU with schools in Thailand that Pear works with, we felt that the familiarisation visit would give her a strong understanding of the educational experiences offered by institutions and the student lifestyle here in the region.
Education South Canterbury was delighted to give Pear a first-hand experience of the region, so that she can support and promote the special features of the programmes that we offer.
What did Pear see and experience during her visit?
Pear’s visit started with a welcome dinner with the members of Education South Canterbury and included a lunch hosted by the Mayor.
We wanted to give Pear the opportunity to experience the activities that our students take part in while studying in the region – she went to a country cafe complete with farmyard animals, and mini golf and afternoon tea with Thai students currently studying at a local school and Aoraki Polytechnic.
Pear visited the Te Ana Rock Art Centre and was very impressed with the cultural history of the region
Unfortunately, the planned trip to Tekapo for a jet boat ride had to be cancelled due to gale force winds! So, that gave her first-hand experience of New Zealand’s changeable weather patterns.
Pear stayed in Geraldine and Timaru, getting a taste of both town and country lifestyles, and experiencing both homestay and motel accommodation, further strengthening her insights in to the student and parent experience.
What did Pear enjoy most?
Pear really enjoyed the chance to meet all of the Education South Canterbury members and develop relationships with the International Directors at each of the institutions.
She loved meeting the current students and felt their enthusiasm and honest feedback was really valuable.
In Geraldine Pear loved looking at the stars after we had been out for a meal. With no light pollution she had some great views of the Milky Way – the clear night air almost magnifies the vista. This is something Pear just doesn’t get to see in the large cities of Thailand.
What did you learn about Thailand from Pear?
All Education South Canterbury members are familiar with Thailand and have visited regularly, so we were especially pleased to get specific information about the schools we are dealing with and the expectations around our MOU from the Thai schools’ perspective. We really appreciated Pear’s forthrightness in working through the specifics of the process.
How are you maintaining the relationship now that Pear’s gone home?
We have been in regular email contact with Pear since her return to Thailand, and we are planning an Education South Canterbury group delegation visit in early September to see Pear and visit NZ Study.
What do you see as unique about South Canterbury education and culture?
In South Canterbury we don’t just do international education, we internationalise our education.
South Canterbury offers an authentic small town Kiwi experience, where all students are known in the school and warmly embraced by the wider community. Students get an individual and intimate experience – they are all made to feel special and develop lifelong friendships with Kiwi students and homestay families.
The experience is very much a two-way exchange between the international students and the Kiwi students. The visiting students opened our Kiwi students’ eyes to their lifestyle, culture and life experiences… so becoming the educators of our students!
South Canterbury is “New Zealand at your back door”. We offer beaches, mountains, rivers and diverse landscapes – outdoor excitement with a sense of security. In South Canterbury, you can travel from the Southern Alps to the ocean in two hours or less.
Students in Education South Canterbury schools learn in the environment. Field trips and outdoor pursuits take them out into the real New Zealand and they are immersed in the environment they are learning about.
Students in South Canterbury schools can embrace the arts – music and theatre, orchestras, brass bands and sing in New Zealand award-winning choral groups.
No matter what students want to pursue, South Canterbury offers the opportunity!
L – R: Julie McLean, Pear and Mayor of Timaru, Damon Odey
Learning on the land – Semillero Rural students arrive
Semillero Rural, the Chilean Ministry of Agriculture's scholarship scheme for vocational students from the regions of Chile, enables students from agricultural schools to learn new skills, develop their English language capabilities and apply their new knowledge by working on a New Zealand dairy farm or in fruit production.
Students then return to apply their new skills at home.
This year 18 students are enrolled in programmes at the National Trade Academy (NTA) and 14 students are studying at Otago Polytechnic in Cromwell.
“The 18 students enrolled with NTA are participating in an English plus Agriculture Programme,” says Craig. “The programme consists of six weeks of learning English, including agriculture terminology, and developing knowledge of health and safety, milk production, fencing, animal husbandry, pasture management and more.
“The students enjoy visiting local farms, learning to ride motorbikes and quad bikes, and learning new fencing skills. The biggest difference between farms in Chile and here in Canterbury is the scale of farming. In spite of New Zealand being a much smaller country, our farms are much bigger in terms of land area, the number of cows milked and the use of technology to improve production.”
During trips to recruit students and build the programme, Craig’s learnt to build relationships first and to be flexible.
“You can’t just take a programme over to Chile and say this is it. We need to be flexible and ask what would work for them,” he advises.
“The other point is to be patient. Nothing happens overnight as there is a process that has to occur. However, once you get final approval it will happen quickly so, as a business, you have to be ready to act. Feedback is also important and you will need to visit the market more than once to build relationships and trust.”
“In my view it is better to look for partner organisations, such as institutions with similar courses, who can promote NZ study opportunities to their graduates, who can then follow up with agents as to enrolments. Chilean parents are fully involved with the whole process and they like to be able to know who they are dealing with,” he adds.
In 2008, NTA contracted a person in Chile to act as their representative, a move that has expanded their network of contacts and proved highly successful.
“The support of New Zealand Trade and Enterprise and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade in the early years was critical, as is the more recent support of ENZ as they understand the market and can assist with introductions that we likely couldn’t make ourselves.”
The ‘Semillero Rural’ scholarship was the pilot for the Primary Sector Training Visa recently approved in New Zealand for Chile.
Bound for Asia
In September Lauren will move to Shanghai to begin her exchange at East China Normal University, one of the oldest and most prestigious universities in China to study the Global Curriculum programme as part of Victoria University's Study Abroad and student exchange programme.
“I expect my Chinese language skills to improve as well as my knowledge of Chinese consumers through living amongst them. Longer term I view this as an amazing opportunity to form networks with new friends, future colleagues and business partners.
“The university is also close to Fonterra’s headquarters in China. I will be interning there one day per week. This will give me a chance to link what I am learning in the classroom with actual business cases. The tangible benefits of learning the language are already becoming clear. I recently wrote my first email in Chinese,” says Lauren.
Increasing Kiwi students’ cultural awareness and understanding of our Asia-Pacific neighbours will strengthen their global connectedness and deepen New Zealand’s links in the Asia-Pacific region.
Through their Asian study experience students will gain confidence in operating in an international context and obtain knowledge and skills that will help them in their future careers.
Not only will some students make lifelong connections through these study experiences, all of them will be great ambassadors for the quality and strength of New Zealand’s education system.
With one of New Zealand’s greatest challenges being to overcome the lack of awareness of our education offerings, having some of our best and brightest participate in study in Asian markets is another way of raising our profile.
More about the Prime Minister’s Scholarships for Asia, including full list of recipients, can be found here.
Read Minister Joyce’s press release announcing the awardees here.
Doing the business
Included in that count were representatives from all eight New Zealand universities, four ITPs, and ENZ Chief Executive Grant MacPherson along with Lisa Futschek (Regional Director for the Americas, Japan and Korea) and Amy Rutherford (International Market Manager for China and the US). Whilst there is a full conference programme at NAFSA each year, the real focus is on the exhibitions’ hall which has been described as a ‘massive speed dating event'. Resembling any large international trade fair, hundreds of upmarket booths house service providers, national umbrella organisations, individual education institutions and agents looking to do deals with one another in the Study Abroad market.
New Zealand institutions had full agendas throughout the week, exploring new business opportunities with partner institutions from the US and around the world and maintaining and developing existing relationships.
ENZ met with a range of organisations keen to work with us in promoting New Zealand as a study abroad destination, including the US Department of State, Education USA, Institute of International Education, STA travel, GoOverseas and a number of third party providers (akin to agents).
The New Zealand networking function was once again a highlight on the NAFSA agenda, with more than 200 of our closest partners enjoying an evening rich with New Zealand wine, food and culture, including an impressive haka performed by Laken Whitecliff, a young New Zealand artist based in New York, who was displaying his work at the venue. It was an evening to be proud of and an excellent way to thank our many partners in the US and globally.
The US Study Abroad market is buoyant, with much untapped opportunity for New Zealand. A range of government agencies have substantial budgets to assist US students on Study Abroad experiences in support of a government goal of doubling to 600,000 the number of US undergraduates studying abroad by the end of the decade. New Zealand has a very positive image in the US, although our profile as a high quality study destination remains comparatively low. But US students choose us rather for lifestyle reasons, our outdoor adventure, incredible landscapes, lord of the rings legacy and being a ‘bit different’ and off the beaten track.
On the back of profile-raising campaigns ENZ led in conjunction with IIE and GoOverseas in the latter half of 2014, there has been considerable growth in the number of US students seeking visas. The first quarter of 2015 is 25% up (221 visas) on the first quarter of 2014. A great start to the year!
If you’d like more information about the US market, please email Lisa.Futscheck@enz.govt.nz or Amy.Rutherford@enz.govt.nz
A media education
In late May I had the great pleasure of taking five journalists from South East Asia on a tour of New Zealand. The journalists – two from Thailand, two from Viet Nam and one from the Philippines – all have a special interest in education, and were part of a bigger group who were hosted by NZ Inc as part of a range of events to mark the 40th anniversary of the relationship between New Zealand and the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN).
While the other journalists went on a trade and tourism circuit, our group travelled on their own education-focused itinerary. Apart from meeting up with the others at a cocktail event held by the Prime Minister at Auckland Museum, we did our own thing.
Above: The journalists were engaged right from the get go!
Most regrettably, a blizzard interfered with our plans to visit Dunedin and Queenstown, but the hastily-arranged alternative schedule of Canterbury-based events made up, in some measure, for the missed opportunities further south.
Once we got the basics – such as dressing appropriately for the cold – sorted, we were on a roll and the week raced by in the intense, humour-filled, lost-in-translation way they do with such visits, and with a good measure of sheep shearing, eye-dog marvelling, pie eating and hobbit-home wonderment thrown in.
Above: They saw cakes being iced in Canterbury…and a robotic guitar in Wellington.
From schools to English language centres, ITPs to universities the journalists were impressed by the range and quality of the programmes and facilities, intrigued by the Intermediate School concept, very interested in our homestay set ups and excited by the many opportunities to hear directly from students currently in New Zealand.
Above: They met with a group of Thai health professionals undergoing executive development in Waikato...and rubbed shoulders with the Prime Minister in Auckland.
For my part, it was a hugely informative trip – providing me with valuable insights into the three South East Asian countries via the journalists, as well as me to make connections with members of our industry and to become more familiar with what you have to offer. Many thanks to those who took part, and arranged tours and gathered students to talk to the journalists.
As I bid farewell to them all at Auckland airport, Nirunsak, one of the Thai journalists who had been a bit of lone wolf during the week, but who I discovered was a music-loving, short story-writing romantic, said: “I will carry New Zealand in my heart with a song.’ Magic.
And yes, we went to Hobbiton!
The follow up questions are coming through now and we look forward to the stories in their media that the visit will generate.
ENZ Business Plan: Building a decade of growth
We hope it was thought-provoking as you consider your strategic goals, plans and ambitions.
ENZ’s focus for the next financial year and future years is on ensuring momentum in the right areas: diversifying student attraction, growing international delivery, and continuing to play our part in developing the wider benefits of international education for New Zealand.
We shared our new market categories, which identify what we believe are the best future market prospects following an extensive evaluation process, and are where we’ll direct our marketing and intelligence-gathering resources.
If you couldn’t join us, watch the video of the Dunedin update, or download a summary brochure.
Event registrations are open – and with a new whizz bang system!
There’s something for everyone among the agent seminars, alumni networking events, New Zealand education fairs and commercial fairs in China, Thailand, Malaysia, Japan, Korea and Viet Nam.
Exciting news is that, in line with our new categorisation of Japan as a ‘promote’ market, we are holding our first New Zealand education fair in Japan in October. Don’t miss out on this opportunity to showcase your education offering to this important market. As well, following on from the success of the agent seminars held in Osaka and Tokyo last year we will again be holding seminars in these cities leading up to the fair.
More exciting news on the event front is that our new event registration platform makes the whole process smoother, and does away with some of the paperwork. All the information you need regarding venues, locations and hotels, as well as some facts and figures about the market are available on the registration page for that event, all making for easier trip planning.
Each event will have an app, so that all the event information will be at your fingertips as you travel.
Registrations for all events close on Wednesday 15 July so check out the event calendar, select your country or countries, and away you go!
Phase two of the event registration improvements will include a meeting planner and appointment scheduler that will enable you to make appointments with agents well ahead of time and ensure you don’t miss out on valuable one-to-one meeting opportunities.
EdTech Exported
This year saw keynote presentations from Frances Valintine, Chair and Founder of The Mind Lab by Unitec; Allison Baum, Managing Director of Fresco Capital in Tokyo; and Frank Catalano, Principal at Intrinsic Strategy in the United States. All three speakers provided strong global perspectives on the product and service opportunities for New Zealand EdTech providers, the investment opportunities, and current trends and ‘fads’ in the sector.
There were also a number of panels where some of New Zealand’s most successful EdTech companies shared their experiences and insights in exporting EdTech. There were definitely a few laughs involved, but it was both sobering and inspiring to hear first-hand some of the challenges and opportunities New Zealand EdTech exporters encounter and how they handle them.
There was a clear appetite for networking and sharing among the 130 or so attendees, and it was inspiring to see and hear about the progress being made in this exciting and promising market for New Zealand ingenuity.
If you didn’t make it along, keep an eye out for next year’s conference. You will find the conference site and business directory at www.edtechforexport.govt.nz
And the winners are…
After three weeks 3,327 students had invited their friends from overseas to enter the competition. Entries flooded in from over 100 countries with the top entries coming from China, USA, India, Philippines, Brazil, Malaysia and Indonesia.
Then came the very difficult task of compiling a short list of ten pairs, and then narrowing that down further to five finalist pairs: Philippe and Rafael from Brazil, studying oceanography at University of Otago; Cherry and Daisy from China studying journalism and film at Victoria University of Wellington, Aprillia and Mira from Indonesia studying at business and law at the University of Auckland, Morgan and Alyssa from USA, studying marine and earth sciences at University of Canterbury and finally Lina and Thao from Viet Nam studying Resource and Hazard Management at Canterbury also.
The voting was intense with our USA, Brazilian and Chinese pairs exchanging first, second and third place throughout the process and over 6,000 votes being counted in total.
In the final days of voting, Cherry and Daisy launched ahead, sealing the number one spot.
An Education New Zealand film crew surprised Cherry at Victoria University of Wellington giving the good news, and she immediately skyped Daisy in China to share it. You can watch the video here It’s priceless.
What happens next?
Daisy is preparing to travel to New Zealand to join Cherry in mid-July. At ENZ, we’re planning the study adventure of a lifetime – showing the very best that New Zealand has to offer Cherry and Daisy in their nominated subject areas of interest (creative arts, journalism, film and education).
We’re also putting together a fantastic tourism schedule, starting with a few days in Wellington and a winter escape to Queenstown, thanks to our supporters at Air New Zealand. Our global social media audience will also help plan the trip – voting for what Daisy and Cherry will do in New Zealand, in exchange for prizes. During their ten day visit and we’ll follow Daisy and Cherry’s adventures – recording video diaries, capturing photos and uploading blog stories along the way.
While our winners are from China, they are excited to be the eyes and ears for prospective students all over the world and we know that they’ll do a fantastic job raising awareness of the New Zealand study experience. Watch this space! Facebook, Twitter & Weibo.