Summary

Foreign fee-paying (FFP) students are now an established part of the New Zealand education system. This report gives a statistical overview of the situation of FFP students in New Zealand and the institutions hosting them, and is designed to underpin planning and research. An overview is given of trends regarding countries of origin of FFP students, and distribution of FFP students throughout New Zealand by region and socio-economic status of schools' communities. It updates statistical data for 2000 published last year¹.

New Findings

Since 1999, New Zealand has entered a new phase of engagement in international education. There has been rapid growth in international student numbers and in provider involvement in export education activities both on and offshore. There were around 52,700 FFP students studying in New Zealand in 2001. This represents a 36% increase over 2000 numbers (38,753) and an 86% increase over 1999 numbers (28,340).

The majority of FFP students in 2001 were of Asian citizenship. For example, 92% of both primary and secondary school FFP students, and 83% of public tertiary FFP students were of Asian citizenship. China was the most common country of citizenship of FFP students in 2001, but Japan remained the most common country of citizenship of FFP students in English Language schools (11,634 Japanese FFP students in 2001).

Auckland was the main destination region for FFP students in 2001. This continues a trend over the last decade. 67% of primary school FFP students, 53% of secondary FFP students and approximately half of public tertiary FFP students were studying in Auckland. Data for language schools is currently not available by region.

Data for this report have largely been drawn from the July 2001 statistical returns made by education providers to the Ministry of Education. However, in the case of the Private Training Establishments (PTEs), the data has been supplemented by information collected by Statistics New Zealand. More details about data sources and definitions are contained throughout the text and are explained in Appendix 1.

Footnote

1. "Foreign Fee-Paying Students In New Zealand: Trends" Strategic Information & Resourcing Ministry of Education,  June 2001