9 December 2015 at 9:00 am
Pathway visa announced
The pilot of a new visa designed to make New Zealand more competitive for international students, was jointly announced by Ministers Joyce and Woodhouse on 27 November.
This is great news for our industry and one of the priority actions identified in the international education industry strategic roadmap developed in 2014.
The pathway student visa will allow international students to undertake up to three consecutive programmes of study with selected education providers on a single visa that is valid for up to five years. A pathway programme can be offered by a single provider, or by a group of providers. For example, a student could obtain a pathway visa to study for three consecutive years at a school, or obtain a visa to undertake a year of study at an English language institution, progress to a year-long foundation programme, and follow that with a three-year degree programme.
Over 500 primary, secondary and tertiary institutions have been invited to participate in the 18 month pilot on the basis that they have a student visa application approval rate of 90 percent or higher for the 2014/15 financial year. A list of participating New Zealand education providers is available on the Immigration New Zealand (INZ) website.
The 18 month pilot period started on 7 December and will enable INZ to evaluate pilot outcomes, such as student transition rates from the first to the second programme of study and how well the arrangements between education providers are working.
Find out more about the key conditions and features of the pathway visa on the Immigration New Zealand website here.
