Mumbai: The population of Indian female students in New Zealand has seen a significant rise of 12% over the past three years, revealed the country’s Education Minister Jan Tinetti.
In an exclusive interaction with The Free Press Journal, Tinetti highlighted that as of March 2023, Indian female students comprised 43% of the student visa holders from India compared to just 31% in March 2020.
“It’s wonderful to see women international students from India thriving and flourishing in New Zealand, particularly at the postgraduate and Ph.D. level,” Tinetti told the FPJ.
Rise in female students in NZ not just limited to India
The increase in female students is not only restricted to India as 52% of international student visa holders in NZ were female applicants in comparison with 48% in March 2020.
NZ's STEM olive branch to Indian women
NZ plans to encourage more female students in STEM fields through a range of initiatives, which will not just be limited to their study journey but also for when they enter the workforce, as employees or entrepreneurs.
“We are open to exploring such initiatives with India as well,” added Tinetti.
Dip in overall visas visible but NZ hopeful of bouncing back
Though India has traditionally been a huge market for NZ’s international education market over the years, Covid-19-induced restrictions in the country to curb community spread and transmission led to a dip in the number of Indian students post-pandemic.
In a meeting with his counterpart from New Zealand, Nanaia Mahuta, in October of last year, External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar brought up the problems Indian students were experiencing as a result of the Covid pandemic and asked for more equitable treatment. "None of us had an easy time during Covid. But students perhaps took a bigger hit than most of us. So, I urged the Prime Minister and the Foreign Minister to take a sympathetic view and understanding of students who enter and I was glad to be assured that they would approach the issue sympathetically," Jaishankar had asserted in the capital city of Wellington.
Numbers obtained by the FPJ in November 2022 revealed that only 1,486 Indian nationals were studying in NZ, a slight dip from 1,600 students in 2019.
According to the Minister, since NZ fully opened its borders on July 31, 2022, the country expects more enrollments from India in the coming years.
“We expect student activity and enrolments from India to return to pre-pandemic levels over the next 3- 5 years,” claimed Tinetti.
Though gaining numbers post-pandemic would be a hard task for NZ with its neighbour Australia welcoming over 96,000 Indian students, as of 2022, according to Austrade, which serves as Australia’s trade, investment, and education promotion agency, pupils from India form a significant chunk of postgraduate, vocational courses in Kiwi universities.
Many from India studying in NZ's vocational institutes
Official records with the FPJ show that while 40% of students from India are studying at undergraduate and postgraduate levels, a further 35% participated in vocational education at Te Pūkenga, the New Zealand Institute of Skills and Technology, which is the country’s largest vocational education provider.
“English language studies, exchange students, full fee paying, pathway study, and scholarship holders are the popular study types among Indian nationals,” Nicola Hogg, General Manager of Border and Visa Operations, Immigration New Zealand, had told the FPJ in November 2022.
