Overseas education agents “speed dating” in NZ

Education New Zealand is playing match maker between overseas education agents and NZ educational institutions this week.

Education NZ has set up a type of ‘speed dating’ event, where agents and institutions have short, one-on-one meetings where they can decide whether they are a good match for working together in the future.

Kathy Phillips, acting chief executive of Education NZ says: “This way they can maximise the number of connections made, and hopefully the number of students the agents will enrol in NZ institutions going forward.

“Education agents play a key role in bringing international students to NZ, and a first-hand look at everything our beautiful country has to offer makes them more enthusiastic and confident about sending students here.”

With support from Air New Zealand, 20 New Zealand specialist agents from China, Hong Kong, Japan and South Korea come to New Zealand for a week of meetings with representatives from 59 institutions from around the country.

The meetings take place in Rotorua and Queenstown, which allow agents to enjoy some of NZ’s top tourist attractions once business is wrapped up for the day.

Following the week of meetings in Rotorua and Queenstown, the agents will travel in small groups to various regions of NZ, where they will be able to visit institutions and have a better look at the lifestyle and facilities their students will experience here.

The groups will visit institutions in Auckland, Waikato, Manawatu, Wellington, South Canterbury, Queenstown, Dunedin and Southland.

In many countries education agents are widely used by students who are planning to study overseas. The agent suggests appropriate courses and institutions to the student, and helps them with the enrolment and visa application process.

Education NZ runs a training and accreditation programme for education agents, allowing them to become NZ specialist agents. There are currently 487 agents in 15 countries around the world.

This is the second year that Education NZ and Air New Zealand have partnered to bring education agents to NZ for familiarisation visits.