Is Export Education Doing New Zealand More Harm than Good?

Is Export Education Doing New Zealand More Harm than Good?

This week, the NZ Herald ran a series on the uncomfortable relationship between New Zealand’s export education sector and visa fraud. It prompted experienced teachers, professionals and even learners themselves to respond that many students are coming for visas rather than learning. Ed. Collective, an independent group of New Zealanders on a mission to strengthen learner communities and improve education experiences wants further conversation.

International students are currently entitled to work 20 hours a week while studying and can apply for further visas beyond this putting them on a pathway to permanent residency. Has this fostered the growth of low-quality qualifications, visa fraud and exploitation of students?

Luc Shorter, Executive Director of Ed. Collective said, “It’s a difficult topic that the Herald is brave to address. We must be careful to keep the conversation focused on systemic issues and their impacts, rather than providing fuel for racist ravings. At the same time, we can’t be so fearful of having critical discussions that any issues intensify.”

New Zealand is known as one of the world’s most welcoming societies. We are ranked first for tolerance of immigrants in the Global Talent Competitiveness Index. Demographer Professor Paul Spoonley notes that about 80% of New Zealanders see economic value in immigration and suggests that in Europe this outlook would be more like 35%-45%.

According to government statistics via Education Counts, international student enrolments are growing while domestic enrolments are falling. 70,000 New Zealand young people are not in education employment or training (NEET).

Mr Shorter said “Because of increased competition for work and a range of other factors, international students can become the focus of frustrations, which is completely unfair. It’s the system and its institutions that have delivered this situation – not the immigrants themselves. We want to preserve our tolerant society, so we need to ask ourselves whether our system settings are inhibiting or incubating anti-immigrant sentiment in and around our learner communities.”

One of the effects of allowing international students to work while studying is that students with comparatively limited financial means are arriving in the country.

“I know the sector is worth over $4b to the nation, but bringing vulnerable students half way around the world with the promise of residency, churning them through low-quality, low-value qualifications and leaving them to be preyed upon by unscrupulous employers isn’t a way for New Zealand to make an honest living,” said Mr. Shorter.

Ed. Collective backs the NZ Herald’s call that “more needs to be done to ensure export education is not doing the country more harm than good”. We need to be asking whether providing the entitlement to work is the right thing to be doing. We need to put more thought into how many international students we bring in each year. We need to focus on recruitment for high-quality programmes and consider how we can do more to hold institutions and employers accountable for their behaviour.

Mr Shorter said, “International students add to the fabric of our society and our learning institutions. Diverse cultural perspectives add to the strength of learner communities and the richness of academic pursuits. However, the ‘visa factories’ of low-quality providers risk cheapening our quality education brand. Even worse, what these operators are doing can end up fostering intolerance and exploitation of those who have travelled far from their homes to build a life here in this great country of ours.”

For further information please visit www.edcollective.org.nz

Ed. Collective: Standing Up for learners in New Zealand and lying in on Sundays.
At Ed. Collective our vision for the future of education is one of great learning experiences and strong learner communities.

Simply put, Ed. is a mate for learners. We care about their challenges and their big dreams. We listen, research and find game-changing insights for education. If you’re a learner, Ed. will go to bat for you. Ed. is that kind of mate. Find out more at www.edcollective.org.nz

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