Friday, March 29, 2024

ENZ: International students invaluable to NZ economy

Education New Zealand has spoken to the importance and value of international students to New Zealand in a submission to an inquiry on immigration settings.

International students coming to New Zealand support the achievement of the Government’s broader goals and objectives while contributing to an important export industry. This is one of the key messages from Education New Zealand’s submission to the Productivity Commission’s inquiry into immigration settings, ENZ said in a statement online.

In the submission, ENZ says that international students should not be characterised as coming to New Zealand to seek employment, invest or run a business. Rather, international students are motivated by different drivers in deciding whether to come to New Zealand, and are different to other temporary migrants included in the scope of the inquiry, it says.

“International students bring foreign exchange to New Zealand to fund their studies and living costs, which contributes to New Zealand’s economic development.”

The submission also discusses the broad benefits international students deliver for New Zealand, including regional development, research output, and strengthened bilateral relationships with other countries.

It says New Zealand gains broader benefits from international education than currently recognised.

“International education delivers New Zealand with broader benefits in the short to long term. The preliminary findings do not reflect the wider benefits of international education, for example, the inquiry has only looked at firm-level innovation. As a result, there is no acknowledgement of the value of research that leads to innovation and that international PhD students significantly contribute to New Zealand’s research output and strengthen our bilateral ties,” the ENZ submission states.

You can read ENZ’s submission to the inquiry here (links to the Productivity Commission’s website).

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