New Zealand is losing billions of dollars in export education income to Australia, US, UK and Canada.
This is a combination of slow visa processing and bona-fide students being declined student visas due to a lack of understanding by New Zealand Immigration that Export Education is a commercial operation, providing education services, rather than just an avenue for New Zealand to fill future skill needs.
It is important to recognise the fact that not all international students studying in New Zealand would wish to stay here; rather they want to learn and take their skills to the global economy.
Poor decisions are being made by New Zealand Immigration because of this lack of understanding around the commercial side of export education and many procedures, particularly in New Delhi and Mumbai offices are being put in place to fix a problem rather than dealing with the issue itself.
The New Delhi office of New Zealand Immigration currently uses ‘Positive Profiling’ as a tool to decide whether student visa applications get processed in Bangkok, which takes 2-30 days or in Delhi which takes six to eight weeks (when there is no queue). Most of our competitor countries turn visa decisions around in less than two weeks.
Profile change
Delhi has just raised the positive profile criteria of student visa applications from 5.5 IELTS (International English Language Testing System) to 6.0 IELTS and changed the profiling to state that a student must be ‘progressing in their education.’
A large number of students applying to PTEs (Private Training Organisations) and ITPs (Institutes of Technology & Polytechnics) that were previously positive profile already have degrees from Indian Universities.
They apply for diploma level courses for the practical vocational education, which are not available in India. This means they are no longer positive profile and are now regularly being turned down as ‘not genuine.’
In my experience, these students are the most dedicated and able to contribute to a workforce easily and would contribute to the long term needs of New Zealand, if they choose to stay here.
Furthermore, a majority of students applying to PTEs and ITPs at diploma level need an entry level criteria of 5.5 IELTS because this is the normal English level required whether from a first language requirement or from a foreign student to be able to learn at this level.
This decision around positive profiling appeared to have occurred when it was raised with Immigration New Zealand (as part of my role as a Member on the Executive Board of the New Zealand Association of Private Education Providers) that there was an issue with degree students being put in to managed queues and/or declined.
Harmful decisions
We have turned around a decision that was not properly consulted, but one which will still partially come into force on April 1, 2012 and will cost the country in export dollars – probably a good quarter of our export earnings.
From this date, international students would be required to study two years on the same course (or two courses on the same subject, for example Level 4, then Level 5) to obtain a one-year work permit on completion of their study.
New Zealand Immigration dealt with this issue on the policy change in a very professional manner, but it is important to note that the policy change never would have happened if export education had been considered properly in it is wider context.
Most diploma courses are only one year in length, which is what the Targeted Review of Qualifications System (TROQ) is trying to achieve, to reduce the current number of qualifications. To enforce this policy issue will go directly against what the TROQ is trying to achieve.
If we force students to study for the sake of studying to gain a one year work permit, they will choose Canada or Australia instead. Further, a number of these students have degrees and do not need to study for a further period of two years and many are going into skill shortage industry including Hospitality, Agriculture, Animation and so on.
Immigration New Zealand is making inroads with ways to close down dodgy schools that will destroy New Zealand’s reputation for quality education. However, it needs more back-up by NZQA and the two departments should have stronger working relationship than they do now. There are a number of low-quality schools that are well known for rubber stamping qualifications. While these schools are allowed to continue to operate and be able to be granted student visas we put our country at risk.
The solution is not to hold up student visas and put unnecessary criteria on these students, but to hold the schools accountable when students are not properly vetted by these schools.
Luella Bartlett is Director of The Professional Bar and Restaurant School based in Auckland and Wellington. She was a finalist in the Ritchies Transport Young Business Person of the Year (2009). The Institution was the winner of the Best Export to India Award of the Indian Newslink Indian Business Awards 2010, Winner of the Westpac Supreme Business Award (2009), Winner of the Trusts Training & Development Award (2009), Winner of the Trust best Hospitality Award (2009) and is a finalist in the Westpac Business Awards 2011, to be announced in November.
