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News from Nez Zealand
19/04/2005
Changes to International Student Policy
“Enhancements to immigration policy will make it easier for international students to work and study in New Zealand”, Immigration Minister Paul Swain said today.
Mr. Swain said, “The changes, which come into force from 4 July, will give more opportunities for international students to gain work permits after they have completed their studies”.
"The changes better align student immigration policy with government’s international education strategy as well as making sure New Zealand remains competitive in the global market for students, many of who make excellent candidates under the Skilled Migrant Category,” Mr. Swain said.
The changes are:
• International students who have graduated from a course that would gain points under Skilled Migrant Category will be eligible for a six month open work permit.
• The pool of students eligible to work part time while studying will be expanded to include Year 12 & 13 school students and some English language students, provided certain conditions, including English language standards, are met.
• Eligible students will be able to apply to work for up to 20 hours a week during term, instead of the current 15 hours.
• Anyone undertaking a course of 12 months or more will be able to apply to work full-time over the summer holidays.
• Partners of students studying in areas of absolute skill shortage and partners of all postgraduate students will be able to apply for an open work permit valid for the duration of the student’s course of study.
Mr. Swain said he was determined the increased work opportunities for international students did not affect New Zealanders wanting work.
“This government’s priority is making sure New Zealanders have jobs and that international students are not displacing local workers. Student Job Search and the Ministry of Social Development have both confirmed that currently there is no evidence of displacement, but we want to be sure that this remains the case,” Mr. Swain said.
“The Department of Labour will be continuously monitoring labour market indicators including the unemployment rate. If the indicators suggest that there is a risk of displacement, or there is evidence of abuse, these policies will be reviewed.”
Education providers will be required to monitor international students' performance and attendance records to prevent any potential abuse of the system.
The changes are the result of a review of immigration student policy carried out over the last year by the Department of Labour. The department worked closely with other government agencies and Education New Zealand (ENZ), New Zealand’s international education industry’s body.
WAIKATO UNIVERSITY ’S WORLD-CLASS BUSINESS SCHOOL STATUS CONFIRMED
Waikato Management School ’s world-class status has been confirmed with accreditation from EQUIS, the European Quality Improvement System and an International Hallmark of Business School Excellence.
Dean, Professor Mike Pratt, said the School was delighted to receive the acknowledgement. “Building on our PBRF success, this is a big step towards our challenge of being recognized as one of the world’s leading schools committed to sustainability. The accreditation process involves many months of rigorous self-examination and review but the result makes the effort very worthwhile.”
EQUIS is one of the European Foundation for Management Development’s quality standards. It signals to students and faculty worldwide that a business school is of the highest calibre. EQUIS accreditation was sought after and had been awarded to less than 80 business schools around the world.
To qualify for EQUIS accreditation, business schools must meet international criteria for size, quality and scope of courses. They must then submit a detailed evaluation review against rigorous standards. An overseas panel of academics and business people visits the school to interview staff, students and stakeholders. The panel examines qualifications, curriculum delivery, research, and contribution to business and the school’s international focus. A review report is submitted to the EQUIS awarding body which judges the school’s performance against international standards for excellence.
Earlier this year, Waikato Management School topped the national PBRF rankings – an evaluation of tertiary sector research – in the two largest business categories – Accounting and Finance, and Management, Human Resources, Industrial Relations, International Business and Other Business.
“Adding EQUIS accreditation to that result gives us national and international recognition that our teaching and research is rigorous, relevant and globally applicable,” Professor Pratt said.
WORKING HOLIDAY - UPDATE
The Minister of Immigration and the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade announced some major changes to the working holiday schemes New Zealand has with a number of other countries. The changes will all take effect on 1 July 2005.
Working Holiday Schemes (WHS) currently allow 31,000 young people from 22 countries to spend 12 months in New Zealand and undertake temporary work.
The changes include:
• increasing the overall number of working holidaymakers allowed into New Zealand.
• dividing an extra 10,000 places between the schemes for Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Ireland, Italy, Norway and the USA.
• removing the cap (which means there will be no upper limit on the amount of places) from the schemes for Germany, the Netherlands, Sweden and the United Kingdom.
• easing the work restrictions (no more than three months with any one employer) from the schemes for Belgium, the Netherlands, Sweden and the USA.
• allowing working holidaymakers from the United Kingdom to stay for up to 2 years (i.e. 23 months).
In addition, the NZIS has announced an online only and “added value” service for Working Holiday applicants. The online service will be very quick and all elements will be conducted electronically (exceptions being for medical checks). Not only will the service be more convenient, but it will also be more informative. Customers will receive information on opportunities in NZ, via email and NZIS will stay in touch with them during their stay to ensure that they remain up-to-date in regard to work opportunities.
LEVEL 8 POSTGRADUATE PATHWAY - CONFIRMED!
The University of Waikato has officially accepted Academic English (CAEL) Level 8 in lieu of IELTS for all post graduate courses except those in the School of Computing and Mathematical Sciences. Students are now able to enter postgraduate courses directly from the Language Institute without having to do any external language tests. In order to be eligible, students must gain a ‘B’ pass in Level 8, Academic English, and this completes all English language entry criteria.
Note: Academic requirements must also be met. The Level 7 pathway into Bachelor degrees has been functioning successfully since 2003, with many schools of study asserting that graduates of Academic English Level 7 are achieving higher grades in their degree studies than those students from the traditional IELTS route.
New Zealand students continue to be among the best in the world.
22/12/2004
newzealandeducated.com
Results from an international study of 15-year-old students in 41 countries released today have shown New Zealanders continuing to achieve at a high level by international standards.
The OECD report on the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) assessed students in reading, mathematics, science and problem solving in 2003.
“PISA 2003 shows New Zealand students are performing significantly above OECD averages and on a par with students in countries like Australia and Canada for all four achievement areas” , Acting Secretary for Education Rob McIntosh said today.
“I’m pleased that our students continue to appear among this group of high performing countries.
“It is also encouraging that this is the first year problem solving has been assessed and our students have shown themselves to be really competent in this key area”.
“However, as in 2000, PISA 2003 shows that, while the majority of our students do well, there are still significant numbers of students not performing as well as we would like”.
“This issue has received considerable attention in recent years and will remain a key focus. A range of initiatives is being implemented to tackle the issue but we would not have necessarily expected to see the effects of these in PISA 2003. This is because the current literacy and numeracy strategies were not being implemented in primary and intermediate schools when the students involved in this latest study were going through”, said Rob McIntosh.
The first PISA study was carried out in 2000. In this second cycle nine more countries participated and this meant well over a quarter of a million students internationally were assessed. In New Zealand, around 4500 students from 173 secondary schools participated in the study.
“While individual country rankings will fluctuate from study to study, partly as more countries participate, our overall level of performance remains high,” said Rob McIntosh.
“Overall the results highlight the hard work that is going on in schools, and I want to acknowledge our students and thank teachers, principals, boards of trustees, parents and everyone who has helped contribute to this positive result.”
Link to the New Zealand report
