Demand spikes and public support remains strong as New Zealand’s international education sector has a crucial opportunity to demonstrate its ability to deliver real outcomes.
Sector leaders from across universities & institutes of technology & national bodies, speaking at The PIE Live Asia Pacific, described a recovery that is smaller in scale than neighboring Australia, although potentially more sustainable.
Director of insights & performance at Education New Zealand (ENZ), Marie Clark, reminded delegates that public backing for the sector remains strong.
Referring to ENZ’s social license research, Clark noted that last year, 77% of New Zealanders saw benefits of international students. 77% may like to witness the same number of more international students coming to New Zealand.
Clark suggested that those numbers matter. This data was presented alongside growth indicators and student experience metrics. This reflects New Zealand’s ongoing consideration of the type of growth the country should aim for.
New Zealand’s reset The current figures now reflect New Zealand’s reset in enrolment numbers. Enrolments rebounded a year ago in ’25. That was with universities & schools together accounting for around 65% of total volume.
When Australia experienced a rapid post-border reopening surge, New Zealand’s border remained closed longer & reopened later. This led to a slower rebuild.
Director of International Affairs at Victoria University of Wellington, Amy Rutherford, said that at Victoria University, they only recently recovered their international student numbers this semester. Victoria University discussed its recovery efforts just last week.
Clark asserted that the slower recovery, in her view, had meant that New Zealand doesn’t have the same headwinds that perhaps Australia was presently facing. This was in terms of massive, huge recovery that one had much earlier. She believed that the situation may have impacted the social license in Australia in a way that had not been previously witnessed in New Zealand.
Simultaneously, structural pressures at home tend to be real, explained Clark. She noted that the government has been quite clear that there may be no more funding for universities.
Clark continued that universities have to seek sources of funding. So, international education is a fundamental part of that.
Clark asserted that operationally, institutions are dealing with a spike in interest.
At Rutherford’s institution, application volumes are now nearly five times higher than they were two years ago, although the conversion rate has declined. Immigration New Zealand used to see roughly half of the offer-holders progress to visa applications. Now it is closer to 15–20%.
Employability Manager at Otago Polytechnic Auckland International Campus (OPAIC), Dani Mao, brought the on-the-ground perspective by working daily with international students.
She further explained that both prospective students and those already admitted are asking very specific and relevant questions.
She shared that prospective students were inquiring about the industry partners OPAIC works with, the firms where OPAIC sends interns, and the outcomes for OPAIC’s graduates. They also ask how long, on average, it takes for international students to find employment and inquire about the salary range.
Mao added that OPAIC often fails to capture some of this information adequately. well enough. This discrepancy occurred because many graduates’ outcome data is based on voluntary surveys.
The data is difficult to analyze, although OPAIC would greatly appreciate receiving more information from the government and from its own institutional data. The goal is to share more information with students.
Meanwhile, Clark agreed that better graduate tracking may be critical. This was particularly so as more international students are now opting to remain in New Zealand after study.
Clark added that ENZ is aware it cannot track students very well. This information was apart from institutional surveys, she added. However, increasingly, students are staying on shore in New Zealand, moving into employment. Therefore, ENZ may be able to obtain valuable insights from government data regarding the employment status of their graduates as they enter the workforce.
As Mao opined, the goal may be to achieve stronger student outcomes that are properly tracked.
