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Outstanding ASEAN Alumni set for special project
A special project dedicated to promoting education ties between New Zealand and countries in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) region in celebration of the 40th anniversary.
The project will involve 40 selected New Zealand alumni who have made significant contributions to their communities following their formative education experience in New Zealand.
The series not only seeks to celebrate already well known alumni personalities, but also to recognise the humble, quiet achievers. The project is designed to reflect the diversity of New Zealand’s connections across ASEAN, to tell transformative human interest stories about people galvanised by their education experience in New Zealand and to promote alumni as key influencers and ‘ambassadors’ for New Zealand education.
Having received outstanding nominations from across all 10 Southeast Asian countries, the team is now finalising the 40 individuals who will be interviewed for 50 profiles (10 broadcast and 40 written).
The interviews are set to get underway towards the end of this month, with the project to be completed by the end of June. From then on, ENZ will own the written and filmed content to use across multiple channels throughout the anniversary year.
80 more ‘Penguins’ to visit
Education New Zealand will contact all eligible schools in the coming weeks to seek and confirm interest to participate in the programme. The scheme’s criteria stipulates candidate schools must be co-educational, non-religious and located within a close radius of the city centres in Auckland, Christchurch and Wellington.
The group will be the fourth to study in New Zealand through the scholarship programme, which aims to expand the international outlook of young Chilean students and improve their English language skills.
Known as ‘Penguins’ because of their distinctive black and white uniforms, 237 Chilean students have studied in New Zealand since the programme began in 2013.
When announcing the programme from Chile last week Tertiary Education, Skills and Employment Minister Steven Joyce said the visit will enable more Chilean students to experience Kiwi life, and that more New Zealanders will learn about Chile by hosting a student or studying alongside the Penguins.
“International students make a significant social, cultural and economic contribution to New Zealand while they’re here and remain connected as ambassadors for New Zealand when they return home.”
Mr Joyce has been visiting Chile, Brazil and Colombia for the past eight days, leading a delegation of university representatives to the region to deepen education and trade links.
A million-plus in a month
As part of our support for the Christchurch Rebuild Programme, ENZ partnered a delegation of six institutions led by Canterbury Development Corporation (CDC) to promote the region across six Indian cities.
Agent training sessions in each city reinforced the range of opportunities offered by the Canterbury region. ‘Showcase Christchurch’ events in New Delhi and Mumbai, included visits to prominent Indian institutions, a business development round table and networking session. A highlight was announcing the second annual ‘Christchurch Educated Skills Scholarships’ worth more than NZ$100,000 which received an excellent reception from students, agents and Indian media.
Also this month, through partner ENZ Recognised Agents (ENZRA), Think New branded fairs were held in Pune, Kolkata, Ahmedabad and Kochi. More than 20 New Zealand institutions participated in the fairs which collectively attracted some 1000 pre-screened potential students for New Zealand.
“Working with recognised agents on these fairs enables us to have a wider geographical reach and retain two rounds of New Zealand education fairs in India (in April and August). The fairs all comply with ENZ brand guidelines ensuring consistency in messaging and agents also pre-screen students so a quality turnout is assured,” says Ziena Jalil, ENZ Regional Director – South and South East Asia.
Above: The ENZRA fair in Kochi saw a good turnout of quality students
Amidst the fairs and Christchurch Educated events, Stephen Fleming continued to bat for New Zealand education, connecting with more than 2,200 enthusiastic students through high profile institutional visits in Chennai, Mumbai and Bangalore. In addition to raising awareness for New Zealand education the visits opened up a range of engagement opportunities for New Zealand institutions such as student and faculty exchanges and twinning programmes.
Through a variety of media initiatives, Stephen reached 1,702,218 active readers and listeners across India to convey New Zealand education messages.
Building on this momentum, ENZ has launched two student competitions in India, again aimed at targeting high quality students and raising interest and preference for New Zealand as a study destination.
For more information please email: india@enz.govt.nz
ENZ makes new friends with Kea
Kea helps New Zealanders living offshore to connect with home and with one another, and to share and use their global experience, knowledge and opportunities. It has recently broadened its network to include “friends of New Zealand”.
ENZ sees Kea as another way to link international students and New Zealand educated alumni around the world – and for them to stay in touch with New Zealand and the wider international Kiwi community long after they have returned to their country.
“The partnership will help to grow our network of alumni – our champions of New Zealand’s Education Story – and will provide a way for all current and former students to stay connected to New Zealand,” according to ENZ’s General Manager Marketing and Channel Development Hannah Lee-Darboe.
“Our alumni are really important for their authentic, word-of-mouth recommendations about studying in New Zealand and how important international education is for cultivating long-term global connections,” according to Hannah.
ENZ will help Kea find people to add to Kea’s network and communicate and engage with this audience via Kea.
“This partnership makes so much sense, Kea’s Chief Executive Craig Donaldson said. “Kea’s global network enables students to stay connected to New Zealand after they leave, while it provides an easy way of interacting with alumni and current international students.”
Kea and ENZ are also partnering to develop an international education version of Kea’s World Class New Zealanders (WCNZ) network in South East Asia. WCNZ is made up of high profile industry leaders and includes the likes of Mark D’Arcy, Director of Creative Solutions at Facebook, and London-based jewellery and accessories designer Amanda Allen, whose work appears in Harpers and Vogue.
Kea and ENZ are currently seeking nominations of high profile New Zealand educated international alumni residing in South East Asia to be a part of this very prestigious network. Please send through nominations (name, what and when they studied, brief resume) to Hannah.lee-darboe@enz.govt.nz by May 15 2015.
Christchurch - Sichuan partnership deepens
The visiting group consisted of representatives from provincial government, business, tourism, education and the arts. The event was formally opened by the Vice-Chairman of the Sichuan Provincial People’s Congress, Mr Li Xiangzhi and Associate Minister for Tertiary Education, Skills and Employment Hon Louise Upston.
In her address, the Minister noted: “the two regions also have a passionate interest in education, which is my particular area of focus. We both value the contribution international education makes to enrich the diversity of our respective communities. We also know that as the world becomes ever more inter-connected, learning about people from other cultures and environments is critical.”
Education was a particular focus of the visit, building on agreements developed since 2013 between the Sichuan Education Department and Christchurch Educated.
During “Splendid Sichuan” the parties signed an implementation plan for 2015-16, confirming plans for future inbound exchange activity. Sichuan Education Department presented Christchurch Educated with 15 full scholarships for Christchurch students to study in Sichuan.
During a Tertiary Education Forum leaders from both regions discussed plans for developing closer partnerships.
Sichuan and Christchurch share common experiences in recovering from major earthquakes and some of the future education opportunities will be focussed on this. Christchurch Mayor Lianne Dalziel led a Christchurch delegation to China last month and in her visit to Sichuan emphasised the developing close relationship between the regions, evidenced by the progress made in developing education alliances.
Attention budding marketers
The first competition will be open to SSEA students from selected institutions who are currently pursuing an undergraduate programme in business, marketing and/or related disciplines. Students entering must submit a marketing strategy designed to promote New Zealand as an education destination in their own country for a 12 month period. The strategy must outline how the programme will form part of a longer three-year strategy, an indicative budget and return on investment.
ENZ will look for creative, critical and innovative strategies which demonstrate new thinking and fresh ideas in line with ENZ’s ‘Think New’ brand values. The five winning entries (across India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam) will win an all-expenses paid four-week internship trip to New Zealand. The second and third placed entries in each country will also receive a prize.
The second competition is targeted at secondary school students in South East Asia. Students will be invited to submit a 700-word essay clearly demonstrating their take on the theme of Think New: Think New Zealand. Winning students will win a prize and have their essay published in a prominent publication in their home country. This competition aims to help students research and learn about what it would be like to live and learn in New Zealand.
Both competitions will be concluded by 30 June.
WeChat – THE Chinese social media
WeChat has become a default social networking tool for Chinese users.
WeChat is China’s version of WhatsApp or Viber but with many additional social networking features. Released in January 2011 it is the largest standalone messaging app with more than 500 million monthly active users of which 15% are based outside of China.
WeChat provides text messaging, hold-to-talk voice messaging, broadcast (one-to-many) messaging, sharing of photographs and videos, and location sharing. It is well integrated with other social networking services. Photographs can be enhanced with filters and captions, and an automated translation service is available.
To understand the scale of WeChat’s growth, the following statistics are interesting:
25% of users check WeChat more than 30 times a day Subscribers spent US$15.3B on mobile data using WeChat last year 86.2% of WeChat users are aged 18 to 36 WeChat users consume more content on WeChat than any other app.
When it comes to marketing, WeChat has a number of advantages;
Relationship building - WeChat acts like a customer relationship management (CRM) tool due its one to one communication, allowing a personal conversation between brands and followers.
Customer Feedback - Customers also use WeChat for collecting information, opinions and comments about products. It is a great platform to gauge consumer satisfaction and to collect followers’ feedback.
Education New Zealand’s WeChat platform was launched last August and has more than 2,500 followers. It is designed to enhance the awareness and understanding of New Zealand education among Chinese students and parents.
Alexandra Grace, Education Counsellor of the New Zealand Embassy Beijing said, “Through the New Zealand’s official Weibo and WeChat, we hope to engage more stakeholders in China about New Zealand’s quality education, encourage exchanges and interactions, promote and enhance cooperation in early, secondary, higher education, and vocational education between the two countries.”
If you are on WeChat, follow Education New Zealand and let us know how this new marketing tool is helping to grow awareness for your business.
Accelerate Your Growth at NZIEC
We’re pleased to outline some highlights of this year’s conference programme prior to registrations opening soon.
Visit www.nziec.co.nz for more information and to register!
Conference theme
NZIEC 2015 brings together practitioners and leaders from across New Zealand’s fifth largest export industry to explore strategies for growth. The Conference provides an opportunity to discuss, strategise and connect with expert speakers and delegates.
The government’s Leadership Statement for International Education outlines ambitious onshore and offshore goals for the international education industry to achieve by 2025. With less than a decade to go until 2025, NZIEC 2015 focuses on how you can Accelerate Your Growth.
To achieve success as an industry, we need to understand key changes in international markets, pursue innovation, invest in capability and communicate a strong brand. Through a range of presentations, workshops, discussions and case studies, NZIEC 2015 will provide a platform to learn what organisations around the world are doing to execute these strategies, and what we can do to improve ours.
Pre-conference workshops
Thursday 21 August features pre-conference workshops – for the school sector in the morning and for all sectors in the afternoon.
School sector pre-conference workshop
A pre-conference workshop for the school sector kicks off at 9am on Thursday morning. Connect with school representatives from across the country while learning about market trends, our key competitors and opportunities to collaborate through SIEBA.
All sectors marketing and market intelligence workshops
The afternoon pre-conference workshops are open to all sectors. Thursday afternoon features a marketing workshop on honing your point of difference followed by a choice of market intelligence sessions spanning the world.
In the marketing workshop, gain inspiration from the Icebreaker experience to help you understand how to stand out from the crowd.
Then, choose from nine future-focused market intelligence sessions featuring cherry blossoms, hashtags and samba! Learn about opportunities spanning the globe – from the Americas to Asia to the Middle East and Europe.
Networking drinks and conference dinner
Join in the celebrations on Thursday evening with networking drinks and conference dinner starting from 6pm.
Friday highlights
The Conference on Friday kicks off at 8.30am and features keynote addresses that will inspire, challenge and provide insight.
In between our fantastic international keynote speakers, you can choose from 12 breakouts on topics ranging from customers and markets, strategy, marketing, operations and innovation.
Breakouts include several sessions featuring the latest data and intelligence, a panel discussion around offshore delivery, a session seeking your input on the International Education Senior Officials Group work programme, and a Lightning Innovation session featuring six industry innovators.
Stay tuned for more detail, and save the date now!
ENZ asks Saudi students: WhyNewZealand?
The 18-member trade delegation included Chief Executives of six education organisations, and the visit provided great opportunities to promote New Zealand’s education system and to profile education companies doing business in the region. The Middle East is New Zealand’s largest export market for the delivery of education products and services, and the sixth largest recruitment market for students.
The #WhyNewZealand campaign targets entries via www.whynz.com and has the primary aim of raising awareness of New Zealand as a study destination. This is Education New Zealand’s first social media campaign in the Middle East and a competition is being run in conjunction with it whereby Saudi students have a chance to win one of eight English language scholarships on offer by promoting New Zealand on Twitter and Facebook. In the 12 days since its launch #WhyNewZealand has already attracted over 9,000 Twitter followers.
As well as participating in events associated with the Prime Minister’s visit, the university and ITP delegation members attended the International Exhibition and Conference on Higher Education (IECHE) in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia; and the Global Higher Education Exhibition (GHEDEX) in Muscat, Oman. The IECHE event week in Riyadh provided an opportunity to launch ENZ’s new Arabic language Study in New Zealand website, as well as Twitter and Facebook pages. A broad mix of Saudi education stakeholders heard from University of Canterbury alumnus, Saleh Alkhozaim, about his experience of studying in New Zealand, and an agent networking event was held to broaden the champions promoting New Zealand as a study destination.
The Middle East region continues to show positive signals for growth, with high levels of engagement via social media; increased investment across Middle Eastern countries in education infrastructure, programmes, and technical and vocational education. If you are interested in discussing the business prospects for your organisation in the Middle East region, send an email to middleeast@enz.govt.nz.
Latin America: 3 countries, 5 cities, 10 days
From 21-31 April, Minister Joyce visited Santiago, Bogota, Sao Paulo, Cuiaba and Brasilia undertaking a comprehensive programme focussing on international education but also covering his other portfolio areas of science, innovation and economic development.
Simultaneously, ENZ Chief Executive Grant McPherson led a high-level university delegation comprised of Victoria University of Wellington's Vice Chancellor Grant Guilford, Otago University Deputy Vice Chancellor Richard Blaikie, Lincoln University Deputy Vice Chancellor Jeremy Baker and South America specialist Maria Duter, as well as UNZ Executive Director Chris Whelan.
This was Minister Joyce’s first visit to Latin America, and it was a great opportunity for him to experience the culture of doing business in the region as well as to get a first-hand impression of the opportunities. The Minister particularly valued the chance to speak with New Zealand alumni. His various conversations with Chilean penguins, Brazilian Science without Borders’ students and Colombian Colfuturo scholarship recipients confirmed that the messages we promote on New Zealand’s high quality education, safe and creative learning environment, and the building of lifelong friendships and connections all ring very true.
The visit also confirmed that accessing scholarships funded by the governments of Chile, Colombia and Brazil should remain a priority for us. In all three countries there are question marks over the longevity of some scholarship schemes, so maximising the opportunities to underline our commitment to them while in market was useful.
Overall, the Minister’s bilateral discussions with Ministerial counterparts in the region confirmed a solid interest in developing the government-to-government relationships in regard to international education. As well as increasing student flows, interest was expressed in learning from New Zealand’s experience of developing a qualifications framework, standards and quality assurance measures, pathways policies as well as training teachers of English. NZ/Colombia bilateral education consultations have been approved for the last quarter of 2015 and Brazil has agreed to refreshing our current bilateral MOU into an Education Cooperation Arrangement.
The Minister’s visit generated considerable media interest and was covered by television, radio and press, successfully raising the profile of New Zealand as an education destination. The last word goes to the university delegation which supported one another’s offerings as well as the overall New Zealand education story with a refrain that developed during our journeys: “You can’t make a wrong choice in New Zealand”. A powerful message for prospective students.
Left: Minister Joyce presenting at the Brazil Senate Education Committee. Right: The Minister speaks with the media after lunch with the Governor of Mato Grosso State.
Country insights include:
Chile
During the Minister’s visit, a fresh tranche of 80 Chilean high school Penguins Without Borders were confirmed to arrive in July for two terms. Continuation of this programme is uncertain, with no indication of Chilean government plans to send Penguins in 2016. There’s good news, however, on the tertiary Becas Chile scholarship front, with administrators convinced by New Zealand’s arguments that subject-area rankings (rather than university-wide rankings) should be considered when approving study destinations. This paves the way for increased student flow from Chile.
Brazil
The Brazilian Science Without Borders scheme shows increasing numbers of Brazilian students approved for studies in New Zealand. However, with the Brazilian public service facing severe budget cuts, there is no guarantee that the projected 100,000 Brazilian students will be placed for offshore study between now and 2018.
The Minister's opening address at the international education FAUBAI Conference in Cuiaba hit exactly the right note, reaching around 500 international tertiary education contacts from 26 countries. The strong focus in Brazil is on forging strong institution-to-institution relationships to encourage joint research, as well as student and academic exchange.
Colombia
A highlight of the Bogota programme was an event with scholarship agency Colfuturo, with presentations and interactions between the NZ universities and prospective students in person and online. Executive Director Jeronimo Castro is passionate about New Zealand and prospects for increasing student flow are positive.
To find out more about opportunities in the Lain America region, please contact Lisa Futschek or Cecily Lin.
Above: The Minister’s Twitter feed included this media scrum at Faubai.