Visa uncertainty for education providers
Tom Pullar-Strecker finds private training firms are more circumspect about visa changes affecting the billion-dollar international student market.
Craig Musson, Itenz chairman Private colleges that cater to international students have gone quiet about changes to work visa rules now that they have been confirmed by the Government.
That was after previously warning that the proposed changes could severely impact New Zealand’s billion-dollar international education industry.
Craig Musson, chairman of industry body Independent Tertiary Education New Zealand (Itenz), said private training establishments were still trying to work out how badly they might be affected.
The visa changes announced by Immigration Minister Iain Lees-Galloway last week might mean only 1200 to 6000 fewer students came to New Zealand each year, as officials have forecast, Musson said.
‘‘But it could be a lot more. Foreign students will be the ones who determine that and we just don’t know.’’
The visa changes mean foreign students studying for qualifications below degree level will only be able to work for a maximum of two years after their courses finish, and in most cases for only one year if they study in Auckland.
That is down from the current situation where students can work for up to three years after they have finished studying.
The extra year of work rights for students outside Auckland only applies if students complete their qualifications before 2022.
One of the country’s largest private training establishments (PTEs), Aspire2 International, had warned before the announcement that it might have to stop teaching foreign students and abandon courses part-way through.
The chief executive of its international division, Clare Bradley, had forecast the Government’s original proposals could result in
44,000 fewer foreign students arriving annually, gutting the private training market which it estimates contributes between
$1.1 billion and $1.5b to New Zealand’s economy.
But Bradley has been more circumspect since details of the changes were confirmed, saying only that it was ‘‘great’’ the Government had modified its original proposals and it was too soon to say what the impact on Aspire2 might be.
As well as allowing an extra year’s work rights for students outside Auckland until 2022, the Government also modified its original proposals by not removing post-study work rights for students studying for non-degree level 7 qualifications that take less than two years to complete.
Musson said Itenz’s members were still trying to come to terms with the changes.
While they were ‘‘not as bad’’ as its members were expecting, the rule that students would be able to work longer if they studied outside Auckland had come as a surprise, he said.
It might be difficult for PTEs to shift more of their business to the regions, he suggested.
‘‘It doesn’t happen overnight. You might set up a campus in Dunedin but are those students going to go there?’’
Itenz will hold its annual conference in about three weeks and Musson said the picture might become clearer then. Immigration New Zealand officials had agreed to meet its members at the conference for one-on-one conversations, he said.
‘‘If students want to stay after one year, they will have to apply for a general work visa and that visa will have to be labour-tested or meet the ‘immediate skills shortage list’ or the ‘essential skills shortage list’ – so they are going to have to look at courses that move towards those occupations.’’
That would be a big change for some in the sector, he said.
The Government was prompted to change the visa rules partly due to concerns that lower-level courses have been taken up by foreign students as a back door to immigration.
Many foreign students studying for degree-level qualifications will benefit from the new rules as they will continue to be able to work for three years but without the previous requirement for two of those years to be in ‘‘employer-assisted’’ work.
Education New Zealand stakeholder manager John Goulter said that was ‘‘very competitive’’ by international standards.
‘‘We know that employability is an important concern for international students. We have heard from our offshore staff that the changes have been generally well received and the international media coverage, especially in our biggest markets of China and India, has been positive too,’’ he said.