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New Zealand aims for more overseas students with new visa

Xinhua, November 27, 2015 Adjust font size:

A new student visa to be issued from next month is aimed at making New Zealand's education sector more competitive in the international market, the country's ministers said Friday.

The Pathway Student Visa would allow international students to undertake a pathway of up to three consecutive programs of study with selected education providers for a maximum of five years, said Tertiary Education, Skills and Employment Minister Steven Joyce.

The Pathway Student Visas would be implemented from Dec. 7 for an initial pilot period of 18 months and cover more than 500 primary, secondary and tertiary institutions.

Figures released earlier this month showed the number of international students studying in New Zealand on a student visa went up by 16 percent in the 2014-2015 financial year to 84,856.

"The industry and government believe that Pathway Student Visas will help retain more international students and make New Zealand more competitive with countries such as Australia which already offer pathway programs," Joyce said in a statement.

"The international education industry is already worth 2.85 billion NZ dollars (1.87 billion U.S. dollars) in foreign exchange each year and Pathway Student Visas are an important initiative that will help is in our goal to double the value of international education to New Zealand by 2025." Endit