International students treated as $tock - Turner

Media statement
For immediate release
Wednesday, 21 February 2007

International students treated as $tock - Turner

A recent OECD report has warned that international students are being treated primarily as a revenue cash cow, an attitude that United Future education spokesperson Judy Turner says must change if we hope to make New Zealand an attractive option for foreign students.

The OECD report says that making money has been the focus of the enrolment of international students and that this may be endangering the quality of New Zealand’s education programmes.

“International students in this country are wooed to come and study in New Zealand, but are then largely neglected once their hefty invoices are paid,” says Mrs Turner.

“More attention needs to be paid to ensure that their pastoral needs are met and that the courses they enrol for are appropriate for the individual, rather than just focus on getting them signed up for something and essentially left alone after that.

“We need to provide better ‘after-sale service’ otherwise the overseas student market will continue to dry up.

“Lessons should have been learnt after the Chinese student fiasco five years ago, but after the rise and fall of the Chinese market the Government simply went to India and now Saudi Arabia to replenish what they see as the ‘international student stock’.

“But our tertiary institutions are no more ready to cope with these students than they were five years ago to deal with the influx of Chinese students,” says Mrs Turner.

The number of Chinese students in New Zealand fell from 40,700 in 2003/04 to just 34,100 last year, following damning reports in Chinese newspapers of student experiences and tragedies in New Zealand.

“We need programmes and investment to ensure that the pastoral needs of our international guests are met. The Chinese fiasco made this plain five years ago – now the OECD report has put it in black and white.

ENDS

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