Announcement further boost for Intl. education

‘Budget Announcement further boost for international education’

Education New Zealand: Media Release 19/04/2005

‘Reduced fees for top flight PhD students and more education counsellors are a double-header win for New Zealand in both a marketing and educational context’ says Stuart Boag, Communications Director for Education New Zealand. ‘Following as it does hard on the heels of the good news from the Student Immigration Policy review it seems like an early Christmas for New Zealand’s international educators’.

Education Minister Trevor Mallard announced today a major new initiative that will mean that international PhD students starting from the beginning of 2006 will pay domestic, rather than international fees. In addition, the children of international PhD students attending school in New Zealand will not pay international fees. The Minister also announced funding for 3 new education counsellors offshore, to add to counsellors already in place or confirmed for China, USA, Europe and Malaysia.

‘These measures all add to New Zealand’s competitive ability to attract the very best international students’ says Stuart Boag. ‘New Zealand obviously benefits intellectually from top ranking PhD students, and it adds credibility to our entire educational system, not just the universities. And the interest that this initiative will spark around the world will mean that even students that aren’t at this level will be further motivated to seriously consider New Zealand when examining their international options. It positions us very well on the world academic stage’.

The expanding number of counsellors also bodes well for New Zealand. ‘We are continually up against the far greater resources that other countries can bring to bear on international education’ says Stuart Boag. ‘The counsellor programme has been very successful in helping New Zealand get recognised as an educational provider of choice and in keeping us on the academic and official educational radar of countries with whom we have an important educational relationship. These announcements also further build the recognition in New Zealand of the importance of international education’.

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