Before the pandemic, New Zealand was considered one of the most competitive and popular English-language destinations, even though international enrolments had begun to decline in 2017. That decline was due in part due to a “planned rebalancing” strategy.
The extended border closure in 2020 through mid-2022, however, took enrolments down to levels far beyond what anyone could have imagined. In revenue terms, the NZ$1.2 billion in fees that international students paid to New Zealand institutions and schools in 2019 fell to NZ$963 million in 2020 and then to NZ$594 million in 2021. According to Immigration New Zealand, there were only 14,639 international students with valid study visas as of 31 July, when the border reopened – a massive decline from the reported 60,000 visa holders as of early 2020.
Is there a rebound in sight? According to Immigration New Zealand, 12,258 international students have applied for visas between the 31 July border reopening and 19 November 2022. Of those applications, decisions have been made about 7,731 of them, with “more than half of our decisions made in under four weeks and almost all decisions (95%) made within eight weeks.” This counts as relatively speedy visa processing in the context of a year in which international students have faced long visa processing waits for destinations such as Australia, Canada, and the US.
Still, given that students will need to be on campus for the first semester of the academic year this coming February and March, it is likely that 2023 enrolments will not reach anywhere near the level they were at in early 2020.
For more information visit- https://monitor.icef.com/2022/11/how-are-international-student-numbers-recovering-so-far-in-new-zealand/
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