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“This policy is costing taxpayers
$2.8 billion and we're going backwards,”
she said.
Education Minister Chris Hipkins, on
the other hand, focused on the number
of free-free students: 41,700 of them
benefited from the policy between
January and September this year. Between
May and September alone, numbers grew
by 25 per cent – mostly in the Institutes
of Technology and Polytechnics (ITP) and
Industry Training Organisation sectors.
“Given the difficult last couple of
years that many of our polytechnics and institutes of technology have experienced,
the stabilising of enrolment numbers in
that sector is particularly encouraging. This
has more than offset the large declines at
several institutions, with an overall increase
of 678 students on August 2017 figures,”
he said.
Further, despite a funding freeze being
implemented in June, Hipkins said the
policy has led to 31,600 fewer students
borrowing money to pay for tertiary
study. For this (and the fact that students
borrowed $193 million less than they did
this time last year to pay for study) he
lauded it as a success.
He also claimed it was achieving its
aim of increasing access to university,
notwithstanding the fact that New
Zealand, in addition to the policy, has an
interest-free student loan system similar to
that of Australia.
The policy, which offers one year of
free university study or two years of free
industry training, is set to expand to two
fee-free university years by 2021, and three
years by 2024.
The next data set on the policy will be
released early next year. ■
can work in. Now, they can work in any
field – not just the one related to what
they studied – provided they earn at least
3 million yen ($36,400) per annum, roughly
the average private sector salary for a junior
employee. A comparable program has been
initiated for vocational graduates.
For years Japan hasn’t attracted the
number of international graduates it
has hoped for. In 2015, for example, the
government wanted half of all international
graduates to stay in the country. Only about
35 per cent (8367) did.
Phil Honeywood, chief executive of
the International Education Association of
Australia, is well placed to comment on
this due to his history with Japan. After first
venturing there as a high school exchange
student, he subsequently worked there for
two years for a logistics company. Despite
speaking the language and the company
wanting him to remain there, he left because
he “was always treated as a foreigner”.
The Japanese government is hoping its
current visa amendments will help prevent
this in future. Similar schemes to the one
it is implementing, known as ‘two step’
migration pathways (where applicants gain
a temporary student visa, then a permanent work-related one) have been successful in
Australia and Canada.
Making things easier still, Japan has
broadened its Designated Activities Visa
to include job seeking by international
students for up to two years. Also, it
expanded eligibility for its Highly Skilled
Professional Visa, thereby allowing more
graduates to apply for it.
The suite of changes has already
resulted in a surge in international students.
Honeywood said pilot trials of the changes
have led to vast numbers of Vietnamese
students, enticed by the residency option,
moving there.
"[However] a lot of the attraction … is at
the paraprofessional, skills level. Whether
this then percolates into higher education in
large numbers is yet to be determined.”
If it does, Honeywood is concerned for
Australia: “This is a real disruptive element
for Australian universities, because Vietnam
is always in our top three or four source
countries. Vietnamese students may no
longer come to Australia to study English
if they’re looking for an employability
outcome.”
Japan hopes to host 300,000
international students by 2020. ■
NZ free uni trial a ‘failure’
New Zealand’s federal opposition
slams government’s free uni policy.
T
he first seven months of taxpayer-
funded university for first-year
students in New Zealand has been
branded a “complete failure”.
Paula Bennett, New Zealand's National
Party deputy leader, made this remark in
response to newly released government
figures which, according to her, “show
there are 2400 fewer students in tertiary
education and training than a year ago”.
Japan courting
foreign students
Nation now desperate for
international graduates.
I
n a bid to combat its low birth rate and
labour shortages, Japan is widening
access to international students.
The famously insular nation has relaxed
its rules on which fields foreign graduates
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