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 KIWIS CALLING
With less than 10 per cent of New Zealand’s high school passouts going for higher studies, the Kiwis are looking at Indian students to fill up their colleges. But will Indians, who are spoilt for choice, bite?
By Rakesh K. Simha in Auckland
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New Zealand may not figure among the top education destinations of Indians, but that isn’t stopping the Kiwis from wooing Indian students. India is fourth among New Zealand’s top 20 source markets for its universities and higher education institutes with its student business valued at over $60 million a year. Compared to just 164 Indian students in New Zealand in 1998, there were over 3,000 approved applications for student visas and permits from Indian students in the last financial year, says New Zealand’s economic development minister Trevor Mallard. That’s a 9 per cent increase over the previous year.
Five years ago, the Indian market was worth just $19.5 million and it did not figure in the top 20 list. Mallard attributes the growth in numbers to the revised and improved student visa policy that was implemented last year and which he had announced in India. That announcement generated so much interest that the Education New Zealand website was inundated and had to close temporarily. Stating that India has been identified as a key market in New Zealand’s international education sector, the minister said that while the numbers are currently small, there is enormous potential for this to increase.
Adds Mallard: “Indian students make an ongoing contribution to New Zealand as many choose to stay on after their studies and help meet our talent and skills requirements. This trend is more marked from India than any other significant market.”
The New Zealand government has decided  to invest an additional $200,000 on a second marketing campaign in India promoting New Zealand as a destination of choice for tertiary education. On the other hand, there is also increasing interest in India from New Zealand tertiary providers. A recent NZ ministry of education report showed these providers ranked India their second most important partner country after China.
He also mentioned the MoU signed earlier this year by the Auckland University of Technology with the Institute of Finance and International Management in Bangalore to deliver the university’s MBA programme in India. Last year, Victoria University of Wellington signed agreements on staff and student exchanges and scientific and educational cooperation with one of the Indian Institutes of Management in Kerala.
New Zealand, however, has several roadblocks to overcome before it can attract Indian students in serious numbers. Firstly, the country can’t match the pull that the United States or the UK have for Indian students. Secondly, the New Zealand job market is pretty much an incestuous market and immigrants have found it hard to break into white-collar jobs.
Also, there is the tech factor. In the eyes of educated Indians, New Zealand is hardly at the cutting edge of science and technology. Clearly, there is a long way to go before more than a tiny fringe of Indian students looks at Kiwi institutes for higher studies.
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September 2006
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