How does New Zealand's education system compare? OECD's Education at a Glance 2010

8. NZ'ers in tertiary study overseas & overseas tertiary students in NZ

Nearly 60,000 international students¹³ were enrolled in tertiary education in New Zealand in 2008, up significantly from 8,200 in 2000, but down since 2005. We had the 5th highest proportion of our tertiary student body that came from overseas. Some 12.5% of our diploma students and 12.4% of our degree students in 2008 were international students. We rank 2nd and 5th respectively in these proportions.

While numbers declined at diploma and degree level between 2005 and 2008, they increased at postgraduate levels, dramatically so at doctorate level, since the introduction of domestic fees status policy in 2005. Over 31% of our doctorate students come from overseas, the third highest proportion after the UK and Switzerland.

While the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Germany and Australia comprised 50% of the total international student market, New Zealand was still 12th largest in absolute market share, with 1.8% of the estimated 3.3 million mobile students worldwide.

Figure 20: Percentage of tertiary students who are international (2008)

See source Chart C2.1 in EAG 2010 for full notes.

Fewer than 5,000 New Zealanders were recorded as studying overseas in 2008. Nearly half of these went to Australia and around 90% when students to the United States, United Kingdom and Canada are added. Students going to Japan and Korea to study made up a further 3% as did New Zealand students studying in France and Germany.

Figure 21: International student mobility (2008)

See sources Table C2.2 and Table C3.3 in EAG 2010 for full notes.

Footnote

13. EAG uses the term "international" or "mobile" student to refer to those students whose country of residence, or whose country of prior education is different to the country where they are studying, and the term "foreign" student to refer to those students whose country of citizenship is different. Many of the indicators in EAG relate to "international" or "mobile" students – but indicators on market share and destination relate to foreign students.