Agency Brings Together Export Education’s Central Resources

Education New Zealand: Media Release 06/04/2011

The Education New Zealand Board is supporting the move to form a Crown Agency encompassing international education promotion and offshore representation, which sees over 90,000 international students in New Zealand each year. The Crown Agency was announced recently by Tertiary Education Minister Steven Joyce.

“Over the last 20 years Education New Zealand and its forerunner NZEIL have played a central role in growing the industry from humble beginnings to something worth $2.5 billion per annum. We are immensely proud of this achievement and the support that we have provided the sector,” says Education New Zealand Chair, Hon David Caygill.

He then paid credit to the ENZ team saying that Education New Zealand had gone from strength-to-strength in recent years. “Several years ago the organisation provided a limited number of marketing services and functions. However, today ENZ offers a range of additional services for education exporters including a range of professional development opportunities; generic promotion of New Zealand – both in-country and online; highly regarded research output; administration of an export education innovation programme; education agent training and inbound PhD scholarship programmes.

“We enjoy high levels of client satisfaction amongst institutions and participation in many of our services is tracking at record levels - for example, Education New Zealand's offshore education fairs saw a 41% growth in participation numbers in the past year alone, and last year our flagship annual conference officially doubled the 2003 number of delegates with a record 460 attendees, making it one of the largest annual industry gatherings in the country. In 2010 we also managed to scoop several international awards - for innovation in offshore exhibitions/fairs, and ten awards for website development and online marketing including “Best in Show” at the W3 Awards”.

“However, while ENZ has enjoyed considerable success in recent years, the government has signalled that it wishes a greater level of direct involvement in return for greater levels of investment from the taxpayer. The Education New Zealand board have accepted this proposal from the Minister and have agreed to the inclusion of Education New Zealand’s functions and staff in the new Crown agency”.

It is currently proposed that the new agency will operate under the Education New Zealand name, and assume responsibility for promotional assets such as the New Zealand Educated website. It will combine the promotional and industry relations functions of Education New Zealand with the offshore government representational functions of the Ministry of Education and New Zealand Trade & Enterprise.

“We are looking forward to combining our efforts with international education functions currently undertaken by the Ministry of Education and NZTE, to forge a stronger body with a coordinated approach to New Zealand’s export education industry and global educational partnerships,” says Hon David Caygill.

By combining the various staffing and funding streams, the new agency will be able to provide a more cohesive strategy, and more effective management of New Zealand’s education exports.

“Supporting the work of our educational institutions and raising the profile of New Zealand in overseas markets is key to the growth of education exports,” says Hon David Caygill. “This umbrella agency will have the mandate and the authority to make a real difference in delivering services to the industry, and supporting our overseas relationships in education.”

Other functions that will be included under the new agency include the training and accreditation of education agents in New Zealand and overseas through the New Zealand Specialist Agent programme; generic promotion of New Zealand as an education destination including education fairs in key locations; commissioning research in the international education field; qualification recognition; professional development; and industry development projects.

The new agency is expected to launch in September.

ENDS

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