NZ News

International student numbers growing, but not everywhere

Published

4 years ago

May 15, 2023

Foreign students are returning to Aotearoa at a faster rate than before the pandemic began, but polytechnics and schools are missing out, visa figures show.

In the eight months from the start of September last year to the end of April this year, Immigration New Zealand approved 32,445 study visas for new students.

That was 10 percent more than in the same period in 2018-19, when 29,616 were approved.

The Immigration New Zealand visa figures also indicated Aotearoa could be becoming more dependent on China for students despite long-standing plans to diversify markets.

The figures showed 21 percent of new study visas were for Chinese students, up from 17 percent in the same period pre-pandemic, and a further 14 percent were from India, down from 16 percent.

The next largest share of new visas was six percent, for students from the Philippines and from South Africa, figures little different to pre-pandemic.

A recent report from Education New Zealand (ENZ) said of 25 countries enrolling foreign students, New Zealand was in the bottom three for the diversity of its foreign student population.

It said 80 percent of Aotearoa’s foreign students came from just nine countries, compared to 12 or 13 countries for Australia and Canada, and more than 30 in some European nations.

The report said India had become the single largest source of foreign students in New Zealand’s main competitor nations, the United Kingdom, Australia, the United States and Canada, with combined visa approvals more than doubling since 2019.

In the same group of countries, study visa applications for Chinese students had fallen 28 percent, apparently due to restrictions on travel into and out of China.

Nigeria had become the second-largest source country for the UK and Canada, and Nepal was the third most significant source for Australia.

The ENZ report said the number of people with valid study visas reached a low of 12,791 in August last year and by March this year had reached 33,438, about half the pre-pandemic peak figure.

The report said the direct value of international education to the economy fell from $3.7 billion in 2019 to $800 million last year.

It said total visa approvals, including visa renewals, from December to February for schools, polytechnics and private tertiary institutions were half what they were for the same period before the pandemic while universities’ approvals were four percent higher.

Changes to residency and work rights were thought to be behind the polytechnic decline, while schools’ enrolments were hampered by the loss of experienced international education staff during the pandemic.

Universities New Zealand chief executive Chris Whelan said universities were satisfied with the number of foreign students arriving in New Zealand, but “not so much” with the diversity of source countries.

He said universities could not diversify on their own and visa requirements needed to change to encourage more enrolments from a greater range of countries.

Current rules meant New Zealand was missing out on the strong growth that competitor nations were seeing from countries such as Nigeria and Nepal, which had a large middle class and an appetite for overseas study, Whelan said.

He was not surprised that there had been no improvement in diversification, despite plans for it.

“I’m not surprised because some of the settings around immigration and visas make it very easy to carry on going to existing markets but somewhat harder to get into new markets.

“So some of the things that we would really like to see are aligning our financial evidentiary requirements – so the requirement for students to demonstrate they’ve got the money to study here, make it a little bit more aligned to the countries we compete with, where sometimes students are coming from banking systems where they can’t meet the requirement.”

Whelan said he would also like to see the return of a study visa category that made it easier for students who completed initial school or English-language courses to extend their visa to further courses.

ENZ director of insights Marie Clark said it would take time to increase the diversity of source countries, and other nations were still relying mostly on students from China and India.

“The primary focus is to regain the strength and base of the sector and the easiest way to do that is to go to markets where we know there’s strong interest in New Zealand. That’s not to say that providers aren’t looking at other countries,” Clark said.

“In the long term I think they will be able to diversify but you need to have a solid base to diversify from and that’s what we’re hearing quite clearly from the sector.”

Clark said ENZ was looking closely at where competitor countries were sourcing their students from.

“If you look at some of our competitor destinations, they’ve got growth in other Asian nations. If you look at Australia they’ve got growth in some of the Latin American countries, so we’re monitoring that really closely just to see whether that could translate to New Zealand providers.”

Though new enrolments were higher than before the pandemic began, the total number of foreign students was not expected to reach pre-pandemic levels until 2030, Clark said.

Schools International Education Business Association executive director John van der Zwan said some schools were trying to re-establish their international enrolments using entirely new staff.

Demand for New Zealand had also changed, with some families wary of sending their children to a country that had locked-down foreign travel for nearly three years, he said.

Source RNZ

Latest News

Police say person who fired gun at officers still at large

Published

3 days ago

November 12, 2026

News Staff

Police say a person who fired a gun at officers in Napier is still at large.

Eastern District Commander Superintendent Joel Lamb said Police tried to stop a vehicle in the Pirimai Area at about 10pm on Tuesday.

He said someone in the back seat pointed what was presumed to be a firearm at officers pursuing the vehicle.

“Staff have then heard two distinct gunshots as the firearm was discharged.

“Fortunately, neither of our officers were injured, and the patrol vehicle did not sustain any damage.”

He said hours later, the vehicle was seen travelling north on the Waikato Expressway towards Auckland.

Police seized the vehicle at an address in Manurewa, but they had not found the alleged offender.

Lamb said people who lived at the Manurewa address were engaging with Police.

He said Eastern District and Counties Manukau Police were making enquiries.

“Presenting a firearm at a Police officer is a serious escalation that puts our staff and the wider community at risk. This behaviour is entirely unacceptable.

“We are taking this incident extremely seriously and will be pursuing all lines of enquiry to locate the offender and hold them accountable.”

Police asked anyone who witnessed the incident to contact Police on 105 or online using the reference number 261111/3764.

Information could also be provided anonymously via Crime Stoppers on 0800 555 111.

rnz

Latest News

New Zealand sides named for RLWC finals

Published

4 days ago

November 11, 2026

News Staff

The players tasked with ending Australia’s Rugby League World Cup dominance have been named.

The Kiwis and Kiwi Ferns have announced their squads for this Sunday’s World Cup finals in Brisbane.

Both sides are chasing their first titles since 2008, and both are looking to end their opponents run of three crowns in a row.

“Our Kiwi Ferns have been so dominant in years gone by, and we want to bring dominance back to this jersey, so I think it will be a case of who wants it more,” said co-captain Georgia Hale of the impending clash.

The Kiwis get a major boost for the final as they welcome back Ronaldo Mulitalo after he served a one-match ban for a high tackle against Fiji Bati.

Mulitalo replaces Charnze Nicoll-Klokstad, who moves to the six-man bench, which again includes utility Te Maire Martin, middle forwards Naufahu Whyte, Erin Clark and Xavier Willison plus fullback Keano Kini.

Loose forward Joseph Tapine will make his 30th Test appearance in a familiar pack again, including second-rowers Isaiah Papali’i and Briton Nikora, and props James Fisher-Harris and Moses Leota.

Winger Jamayne Isaako is on the cusp of claiming the New Zealand record for most Test points.

His five goals against Tonga lifted his career points tally to 225 – level with Shaun Johnson – while centre Casey McLean goes into the final with 16 tries in just eight Tests.

Fisher-Harris will again captain the team.

Fullback Ponga said the goal of the group was clear.

“We have high expectations around what we want to achieve, and obviously winning a world Cup is one of them.”

Meanwhile, Ricky Henry has selected a settled side to take on the Jillaroos, led by their lethal centre combination of Stacey Waaka and Mele Hufanga.

Veteran Apii Nicholls takes the number one jersey, Leianne Tufuga and Mackenzie Wiki on the wings.

Henry has stuck with his halves pairing of Chantay Kiria-Ratu and Raecene McGregor with Alexis Tauaneai, Georgia Hale and Otesa Pule up front.

Rounding out the starting pack is Shaniece Monschau, Kaiyah Atai, and Angelina Teakaraanga-Katoa.

“We have been building well throughout the tournament; we understand the Jillaroos side, and will give it our all to make New Zealand proud this weekend,” said Henry.

RLWC Finals:

Kiwi Ferns vs Jillaroos- 6.10pm

Kiwis vs Kangaroos – 9.35pm

Sunday November 15

Suncorp Stadium, Brisbane

Live blog updates on RNZ

Kiwi Ferns:

1. Apii Nicholls 2. Leianne Tufuga 3. Mele Hufanga 4. Stacey Waaka 5. Mackenzie Wiki 6. Chantay Kiria-Ratu 7. Raecene McGregor 8. Alexis Tauaneai 9. Georgia Hale 10. Otesa Pule 11. Shaniece Monschau 12. Kaiyah Atai 13. Angelina Teakaraanga-Katoa.

Interchange: 14. Ashleigh Quinlan 15. Annessa Biddle 16. Shannon Mato 17. Ivana Lauitiiti.

Reserves: 18. Brooke Anderson 19. Zahara Temara 20. Brianna Clark 21. Abigail Roache 22. Tenika Willison.

Kiwis:

1. Kalyn Ponga, 2. Jamayne Isaako, 3. Dane Gagai, 4. Casey McLean, 5. Ronaldo Mulitalo, 6. Kodi Nikorima, 7. Jahrome Hughes, 8. James Fisher-Harris (c), 9. Jeremy Marshall-King, 10. Moses Leota, 11. Isaiah Papali’i, 12. Briton Nikora, 13. Joseph Tapine (v/c).

Interchange: 14. Te Maire Martin, 15. Naufahu Whyte, 16. Erin Clark, 17. Xavier Willison.

Reserves: 18. Keano Kini, 19. Phoenix Crossland, 20. Charnze Nicoll-Klokstad, 21. Scott Sorensen, 22. Leo Thompson.

rnz

Latest News

Opportunities to mitigate multi-million-dollar RNZ budget blowout likely missed – experts

Published

5 days ago

November 10, 2026

News Staff

Multiple opportunities to identify and mitigate a multi-million-dollar budget blowout at RNZ appear have been missed, according to the former executive director at Audit New Zealand.

The public broadcaster on Monday revealed a near $12 million shock financial loss after a litany of financial blunders, which will now lead to sweeping job cuts.

The $11.8m loss is more than 25 times the $470,000 RNZ had expected to lose over the year to June.

CEO Paul Thompson took responsibility for the result, and said internal reports gave an inaccurate picture of the finances, meaning the scale of the loss only became clear in October.

RNZ’s former chief financial officer Hilary Parker resigned unexpectedly in early October.

The board said it would commission an independent review into what went wrong.

Independent contractor Stephen Walker, who left the Audit Office earlier this year, said the size of the loss was surprising, as was the length of time it took to identify it – months after the financial year ended.

“Probably more of a concern is that they had seemingly been unaware that they were running up a significant deficit until they were in the preparation stage of their annual report in October.”

Walker said public entities typically produced monthly financial reports.

An interim audit also took place before the end of the financial year, he said, but if the organisation hadn’t identified significant losses at that stage, the auditor could also be in the dark.

“It seems that there’s a real weakness in forecasting and budgeting that’s occurred here and that the monthly accounts, when they’re produced, either haven’t identified these significant variances against budget or the magnitude of them really hasn’t come to light until right towards the end of the financial year,” Walker said.

“And really at that point, there’s no opportunity for the chief executive, the leadership team to take, and the board to take, any corrective action because the year has effectively been completed.”

Walker said the “significant miss” was difficult to account for given it was more than 10 percent of RNZ’s total funding.

He said based on RNZ’s annual report, financial complexity didn’t appear to be a factor.

“This $11.8m loss isn’t made up of one particular item … it seems to have been contributed to by a number of separate expense lines running over budget. So I don’t think it’s necessarily to do with complexity.”

Among the errors, RNZ wrongly counted $2m from land sales as income in its budget. Staff costs also came in $3.2m over budget, including $1.4m in redundancy payments.

Professor at Auckland University’s business school Norman Wong said based on media reports the issues identified were “significant and troubling”.

“But recognising the sale of land as income in their budget is a basic error that one would have expected to have been caught and corrected well before it got to this point.”

With funding reductions at RNZ over the past two years, Walker expected greater scrutiny of financial results.

“Virtually every public entity has had their annual budget reduced. And so you would expect … the leadership team on a monthly basis and board – I’m not sure how frequently the board will consider the information – but you would expect them to be interrogating the results on a regular basis throughout the year,” he said.

Walker said initiating an independent review was the correct course of action and that he’d want to understand what information the leadership team and the board were regularly receiving.

He said he’d “love to say” surprising financial results were rare, but conceded they occured on a semi-frequent basis during his time leading the Audit Office.

“The benefit of independent scrutiny by the Audit Office – and the auditors providing that support to the Auditor General – [is] that the reporting is fairly presented at the end of the year, whether it’s good, bad or ugly.”

rnz