MIT Selected for Industry Partnership Initiative

31 October 2013

NMIT Media Release –for immediate release

NMIT Selected for Industry Partnership Initiative with Immigration NZ

Nelson Marlborough Institute of Technology (NMIT) has been selected to trial an industry partnership initiative with Immigration New Zealand. The initiative is being trialled with New Zealand universities and a small group of polytechnics and private training providers. Those that are part of the initiative will be able to offer streamlined and prioritised visa processing for international students and in return, be accountable for the immigration outcomes of their international students. The model will be run as a pilot in 2014 and if successful, will be rolled out to all of the top quality (Category One) education providers in 2015.

The pilot is part of a package of new initiatives recently announced by the Government to encourage further growth in New Zealand's $2.6 billion international education sector. Changes will make it easier for some international students to work during their studies and allow streamlined visa processing in partnership with selected high quality education providers, while the lowest quality providers will be prevented from enrolling international students.

NMIT Chief Executive Tony Gray said the industry partnership initiative with Immigration New Zealand should support NMIT’s efforts to grow its international student numbers. NMIT averages around 500 international students each year from more than 35 different countries. India is the largest market at 33.1% followed by China at 19.1%, Japan at 17.2% and Sweden 4.4%

“This initiative will enable us to compete more effectively by being able to facilitate faster visa processing for our international students. We will be able to offer students streamlined visa processing in-house which will make the application to enrolment process easier and faster for our students. Many international students send their applications to several institutes around the world and wait to see what comes back first. We are anticipating that fewer checks and swifter decisions for our applicants will give NMIT a competitive advantage.

“Many international student applications ‘fall down’ at the visa processing stage and with this new collaborative process, we can have a bigger hand to play in getting the best possible outcome for our students, NMIT and our region,” he said.

ENDS

Further information about all the new changes can be found here: www.immigration.govt.nz/migrant/general/generalinformation/news/internationalstudentchanges

http://www.beehive.govt.nz/release/changes-attract-more-international-students-nz

© Scoop Media