Border restrictions during the Covid-19 pandemic drastically cut back the number of international students coming to New Zealand universities, but many are now reporting a rebound. Photo: AFP
Universities' lucrative international enrolments are all but back to pre-pandemic levels.
Universities New Zealand chief executive Chris Whelan said the eight universities had about 20,000 full-time equivalent international students.
He said the figure was about 1000 more than the same time in 2018, and about 1000 less than at the start of 2019 - the year before pandemic-related border restrictions stopped new enrolments.
And more international students would arrive as the year progressed, Whelan said:
"I think we've got a pretty good chance of passing our 2019 figures this year."
The recovery would make a difference to universities' finances, he said.
"International students are an important part of our community, but absolutely they also have an economic value."
Most universities had added 200-300 full-time foreign students to their rolls this year, but Waikato added 800.
It said its 1903 internationals were 73 percent more than the same time last year and 45 percent more than the same time in 2019.
University of Waikato vice-chancellor Neil Quigley said it had required a couple of years of hard work to get to this point.
"Waikato had a big reduction in international students when the borders were closed, because we tend to be selling our campus-based experience and we don't really enrol students on the internet to do international programmes," he said.
"So it's been something of a journey for us to rebuild the pipeline of students coming into the country and looking for that campus-based experience that we offer."
The recovery was important financially, he said.
"We've for three years lived off our balance sheet, but you can't do that forever. So we need to start putting some surpluses back into the balance sheet and rebuilding some things at the university.
"Our staff have managed with salary increases below the rate of inflation in some years given that we were quite financially challenged, so it's really good to be feeling as though we have a path forward now."
Quigley said enrolments from China had rebounded and there was strong growth from India, but the university had also noted a big increase in enrolments from Sri Lanka and enrolments were spread across a wide variety of courses.
He said international students were likely to account for more than 20 percent of students at Waikato this year and the university had set a target of 25 percent.
Massey, Canterbury, Otago and AUT reported increases of 15 to 19 percent compared to the same time last year.
The University of Auckland said it was up 10 percent and Lincoln 27 percent.
Meanwhile, Victoria's 1276 full-time foreign students were just just five percent, or 55 more than the same time last year.
RNZ understands the relatively poor result coincided with the departure of senior staff in its international office, but in a statement the university refused to comment on that.
"Victoria University of Wellington set ambitious international enrolment targets for 2025, aiming for 1,850 EFTS. While we have adjusted our forecast slightly to 1,690 EFTS - a five percent increase on last year - we remain focused on attracting more students, particularly from the Northern Hemisphere, where secondary school cycles differ."
The university said its finances were sound and it was expecting to make a surplus this year.
Universities' foreign enrolments dropped due to Covid-related visa restrictions, which stopped the free flow of foreign students from early 2020 through to the end of July 2022.
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