In his article, ‘Promising prospects need better management,’ appearing in this issue (Educationlink) New Zealand Career College Managing Director Feroz Ali has called on the government to introduce a system of registration for education agents. This would be similar to the Immigration Advisers who are now required to be licenced before they accept clients.
Agreeing that some onshore agents have a role to play, Mr Ali has suggested that the government must make it mandatory for these agents to be registered with Education New Zealand as approved New Zealand Specialist Onshore Agents.
“As registered agents, they would be held accountable for fee-protection rules and other regulations as required,” he said.
There is strength in his argument. For, we have seen several malpractices in the export education sector involving fraudulent deals, spurious job offers given to students in exchange for money and certificates of diplomas and degrees from some institutions without having to pursue the relevant courses and programmes.
Compounding these problems is the collapse of a number of institutions, leaving thousands of students in the lurch.
In all of these, New Zealand‘s image as a ‘corruption-free country’ and as a popular destination for international students has taken a beating.
There is therefore an urgent need to cleanse the export education sector, with stringent rules and regulations governing private tertiary establishments, agents and students.
The number of foreign students attending polytechnics and universities has more taken a quantum leap in the last decade, faster than expected.
Successive governments have done their best to increase revenues from export education. The current National-led government is hopeful of doubling export earnings from education to $5 billion by 2025.
The UK model could be of some use to us in this connection. Export earnings from international students totalled £8 billion in 2009 and could grow to £17 billion by 2025. A British Council study due to be published on March 13 predicted that by 2020, about 585,000 students from China and 296,000 from India will seek university education overseas. Britain’s new universities will compete for them, assuming the government can resist over-tightening student visas.
Some new universities are also poised to benefit from the David Cameron government’s attempts to create a market in higher education. Because the state subsidises student loans, ministers have imposed caps not only on the tuition fees universities can charge but also on the number of students they can admit.
This has provided a little wiggle room for two sorts of institutions: cheap ones, and ones that recruit students who gain excellent grades at A-level, the examination normally sat at the age of 18.
India is perhaps the most important market for export education, with hundreds of thousands of students going overseas for higher education every year. With a burgeoning middle class affording overseas education, countries of the West would do well to market their educational institutions through cooperative ventures blessed by official sponsorship. Which is why Australia, Canada, UK and US spend millions of dollars in ‘corporate promotion.’ The Federal Governments in these countries are serious about expanding their export education sector.
New Zealand should also improve its presence in the Indian market. The ensuing seminars and education fairs in India’s main centres is a step in the right direction.
Higher education will continue to grow in New Zealand, with the government’s reforms nurturing high-quality provision in our universities and tertiary institutions. This in turn will attract large numbers of top applicants.
But the need for orderliness emphasised by Mr Ali should not be overlooked.
