Since the 1990s, New Zealand has become one of the most popular destinations for international students, drawn by a combination of factors that include the high quality colleges and universities there, the variety of qualifications on offer, the encouraging prospects for permanent immigration and the reasonable cost of tuition fees and living expenses.
In 2006, more than 105,000 international students were enrolled in New Zealand’s education programs. With only eight publicly funded universities spread across the entire country the New Zealand system of graduate education is extremely well structured, based largely on the UK model of higher education, with one-year masters programs and a minimum of three-year PhD research programs. Additionally, most universities offer shorter graduate diplomas for those students seeking either a change in academic direction or without the relevant prerequisite entry qualifications. Five of New Zealand’s universities are based in the North Island and three in the South Island. Otago University is New Zealand’s oldest and most southern university, located in the city of Dunedin and is famous for its medical school. Auckland is the largest university in New Zealand and is located in Auckland, New Zealand’s largest and most metropolitan city.
The choice of programs on offer in New Zealand is both large and diverse and supported by an exhaustive Code of Practice that ensures all international students are offered a consistent and high quality student experience. Of the eight universities in the country, six appear in the world university rankings and two, the University of Auckland and the University of Otago, appear in the world’s top 200 universities. Programs cover the entire academic range, with particular strengths in areas such as biotechnology, environmental science, forensic science, medical education, marine engineering and sustainable energy. Full details are available either at the individual websites of the universities or at the Government managed website, New Zealand Educated at www.newzealandeducated.com.
For prospective international graduate students, New Zealand also offers very reasonably priced programs and economical living costs. Depending on the institution and the subject most tuition fees fall into the US$11,000 – US$20,000 per year category, with living costs an additional US$9,000 per year. Additionally, graduate scholarships are offered both centrally, by the New Zealand Government and individually, by the universities. In 2007, the New Zealand International Doctoral Research Scholarships (NZIDRS) will offer awards for 100 students covering full tuition fees and living expenses for three years. The deadline for these awards is July 16, 2007 and full details on all terms and conditions are available at www.newzealandeducated.com/scholarships/page1.html.
Applications to graduate diplomas and masters programs require that the applicant has achieved a first degree with a high grade point average in a subject area that relates to the proposed subject area of further study. Generally a B average is required for engineering, science and management and related fields, while higher averages are required for more specialised subject areas. As all programs are taught in English, a high degree of language competence is expected with IELTS scores of 6.5 being considered a minimum.
To help you make the right choice, the New Zealand Government evaluates the quality of research undertaken in its educational institutions through the Performance Based Research Funding exercise. This is a particularly good measure for prospective graduate students of judging how good and how active an institution or indeed an individual academic department is by evaluation the activity level of research staff, the amount of external research funding that is received and the number of student completions at the research level. Details of the last exercise can be found at the Tertiary Education Commission website, www.tec.govt.nz.
Although the graduate programs offered by many of New Zealand’s universities are regarded highly, there is no denying the influence of other factors in the popularity of the country as a destination for international students. Always regarded as somewhat of an exotic destination on the other side of the world, New Zealand offers an outstanding and unique natural environment, a prosperous and modern developed economy, many opportunities for work experience after graduation and a welcoming and warm society. For those seeking such a combination, New Zealand represents an excellent choice of destination.