‘New Zealand to Woo Hong Kong’

‘New Zealand to Woo Hong Kong’
Education New Zealand: Media Release 29/09/2004

Creating fresh enthusiasm for New Zealand education is the key objective behind a visit of four education agents from Hong Kong next week. The four agents will spend a week in New Zealand, visiting institutions across the North Island.

Hong Kong, although part of China, has a number of different characteristics as a market, including a different domestic education base and even language differences. For this reason, most institutions treat Hong Kong as an independent market.

Hong Kong has been a significant market for New Zealand educators and in 2003 was worth nearly $33 million to our economy. However, a combination of SARS and the general difficulties New Zealand institutions have had in the wider Chinese market have all impacted on Hong Kong over the last 18 months, particularly in the English Language sector which has seen a decline of around 50% in enrolments from Hong Kong.

Currently, there are around 1100 Hong Kong students studying in New Zealand. They are in all sectors, spread evenly across Universities, private providers and schools. Schools bucked the overall trend of stagnant or declining numbers and currently have around 20% more Hong Kong students enrolled than they did last year. This is good news for the tertiary sector as well, as many Hong Kong students seek to go on and seek higher level in education in New Zealand at the conclusion of their schooling.

Education New Zealand and New Zealand Trade and Enterprise run a joint marketing programme which includes familiarisation trips by education agents from many of our key and developing markets. These trips enable agents to experience New Zealand institutions first hand, and are vital in ensuring that agents have accurate information about New Zealand and our education system. This first hand knowledge is invaluable in helping agents recommend New Zealand to prospective students in a hyper-competitive global marketplace.

ENDS

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