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View from the Top: Mr Robert Stevens, CEO of Education New Zealand.
What characterizes many of New Zealand’s graduate programs is the effort to which academic members of staff go to provide the best possible experience for international grad school students. This is one of the aspects that the Education New Zealand CEO is most proud of: “International students are absolutely well supported here and institutions are required under our Code of Practice to ensure that students receive the additional support they need. Although it varies from institution to institution, help is readily on hand for international students in New Zealand. They receive pre-departure orientation, airport pick-ups when they arrive, help in settling in and most institutions have full-time international staff.”
Attracting top international PhD students is an important part of the Education New Zealand strategy.
New Zealand is also a place of considerable innovation. With leading areas of research in fields as diverse as vulcanology (the study of volcanoes), alternative energy sources, agriculture, veterinary sciences, environmental sciences, viticulture, tourism management and allied medical sciences, the range of Masters and PhD programs on offer in the country that are very different from other countries is a significant advantage for international students. But the innovation does not stop with the academic subjects taught – in a concerted effort to attract the best international research students, the New Zealand Government took the unprecedented decision three years ago to offer all PhD programs to international students at the tuition rate for domestic students, with additional support through a range of scholarships. Attracting top international PhD students is an important part of the Education New Zealand strategy, confirms Stevens: “When these top research students come to New Zealand, New Zealand benefits. They are doing some outstanding research, which improves our universities’ reputations internationally, while many of their projects also have strong impacts outside the education sector.”
With so many countries now offering Masters and PhD programs in English, making the right choice on where to study is getting increasingly difficult. While a country of barely four million people, New Zealand might be just what you’re looking for, with its quality guarantees, excellent student support, affordable living and tuition costs and wonderful quality of life. Education New Zealand’s Rob Stevens is not alone in thinking that graduate programs here are part of a “new world-class.”
