Today the New Zealand Government announced new initiatives to make New Zealand a more attractive study destination for international students Govt announces measures to support growth Message from Grant McPherson, ENZ Chief Executive: Through the industry survey, the recent roadshow meetings and the feedback Education New Zealand (ENZ) staff have taken on board at many meetings around the country, we’ve heard clearly – from all sectors and all regions – that changes to government policy settings and regulation are incredibly important to support your efforts to grow international student numbers. Over the past year, ENZ has been working closely with several government agencies to adjust the policies and regulations that will make New Zealand’s international education industry more competitive and support your efforts to grow international student numbers. It is with this in mind that I’m emailing you with some good news. Tertiary Education, Skills and Employment Minister Steven Joyce and Immigration Minister Michael Woodhouse have just announced new initiatives to make New Zealand a more attractive study destination for international students. The new initiatives include: • Extending work rights to all international students studying at high quality providers in the English Language sector (enrolled in courses of at least 14 weeks’ duration) • Providing full-time work rights to all tertiary international students undertaking study of one academic year or more during scheduled holidays • Giving international PhD and Masters by research students unlimited work rights • Piloting a partnership initiative that will give trusted providers more say in visa decisions for their students. Detailed information about all of the initiatives above is available here. While we believe that all of these changes will contribute to the growth of New Zealand’s international education industry, the industry partnership pilot represents a significant potential step forward. The pilot will enable high-quality providers to compete more effectively by being able to facilitate faster visa processing for their international students. The pilot will allow up to 25 pre-selected providers from a range of sectors, including schools, to offer streamlined and prioritised visa processing to students they’ve assessed as genuine and as having adequate financial resources. The pilot will run from 2014 before being rolled out to other high quality providers in 2015. This process will happen in conjunction with Immigration ONLINE. Today’s announcements are great news for our international competitiveness, but they’re not the end of the story. We will continue to work closely with agencies on initiatives to help grow our industry and we encourage you to stay in touch with us about the opportunities you see to further remove barriers to growth. Kind regards, Grant McPherson Chief Executive Education Study & Work In New Zealand
Posted on: Thu, 10 Oct 2013 10:53:32 +0000
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