NZ set to host Brazilian ‘Ganhando o Mundo’ programme scholars in 2025

Brazil is now the 6th largest source of international high school students for New Zealand, moving up from 11th place in 2023 (1). Contributing to this rise in popularity has been the strengthening of educational ties between education partners in Brazil and Education New Zealand Manapou ki te Ao (ENZ).   

The ‘Ganhando o Mundo’ programme from Paraná, recently announced new high school student scholarship winners for 2025. Five countries have been chosen to host the students, with New Zealand being announced as one of the five. Approximately 200 scholarship winners are expected to spend two terms in New Zealand schools next year. 

‘Ganhando o Mundo’ is an international education programme created by the state of Paraná which allows thousands of students from public high schools to study abroad for six months with all expenses subsidised. The goal is to provide academic training in foreign institutions, as well as cultural and pedagogical experiences that can later be shared in state schools in Paraná. 

The announcement was made in Curitiba during a series of engagements that took place in October between a New Zealand delegation and Paraná state institutions, international education agencies and government authorities.  

ENZ’s Bruna de Natale meets with ‘Ganhando o Mundo’ programme coordinators at the Paraná State Department of Education, Lucimar Gusmão and Marlon de Campos Mateus in October.

This was followed by a launch event hosted by the Paraná state government on 25 November in which the New Zealand Ambassador to Brazil, Richard Prendergast, attended alongside ENZ’s market development manager for Brazil, Bruna de Natale, state government officials, and hundreds of excited scholarship winners. 

“The two hundred students who will be going to New Zealand next year – and the 350 others who went in the two previous editions, in fact, all the Brazilians who studied in New Zealand, our alumni - are ‘informal ambassadors’ of New Zealand in Brazil,” said Ambassador Prendergast.  

“They know and understand both countries and tend to work to expand our collaboration, to build bridges. People-to-people relationships are fundamental in our bilateral relationship, he added.”

Following the launch event, the Ambassador and Bruna de Natale, met with the Paraná state Secretary of Science, Technology and Higher Education, Aldo Bona, and the Secretary of Education Roni Miranda. They are pictured here with the Secretary of Education Roni Miranda.  

ENZ’s Bruna de Natale said that this announcement is testament to the strong educational ties that are continually growing between New Zealand and not just the state of Paraná, but across the rest of Brazil too.  

“A similar study abroad programme has also just been announced by the state government of São Paulo. ‘Prontos Pro Mundo’ (Ready for the World) will send approximately 100 Brazilian students to New Zealand high schools during term 1 next year,” said Bruna.  

“We look forward to welcoming all of these Brazilian students to high schools and their local communities across the country in 2025 and building on this momentum to host more students in the future,” added Bruna.  

1. Source: Ministry of Education interim international student enrolment data (January to August 2024).