Sandra Grey: Tertiary Education Union's national secretary on the number of international students enrolled in polytechs

The effects of centralising New Zealand's polytechs continue to be felt. 

New data shows there were about 75 thousand international students in the country last year, down from 125 thousand in 2016. 

Tertiary's seen the biggest drop, halving in that timeframe. 

Tertiary Education Union's national secretary Sandra Grey told Mike Hosking polytechs had major reform after Covid, which disrupted courses and staff. 

She says that confuses students looking to study, who will then consider options elsewhere. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
We've got a new numbers out this morning that show

(00:01):
the trouble we have in parts of the education system.
As far as international students go. Primary and high school
enrollments are down some twenty two percent on pre COVID levels.
Tertiary providers like your polytechs, not your unis, but your
polytechs have seen their numbers have from one hundred and
six thousand to fifty six thousand now. Doctor Sandra Gray
is Tertiary Education Union National Secretary and is with a CenTra.
Very good morning to.

Speaker 2 (00:21):
You, Good morning night.

Speaker 1 (00:23):
What are you Rickons going on here? Because last time
I did an interview on the unis, the UNI say
pretty much we're back on the internationals. What's gone wrong
in the other parts of the sector.

Speaker 2 (00:32):
Look, I think there's a number of things we have
to look at. The universities are studying tech growth. As
you say, post COVID, it did cause huge disruption for
our sector and huge destruction for the international students in
our polytechnics. Of course, since COVID we've had major reforms
which have made the polytechnics really disrupted, real disruption to

(00:57):
the courses office, real disruption for the and that confuses students.
That causes real issues of students who are looking to
study and they go, well, if I can't figure it out,
I'll go somewhere else. And that's what international students do.

Speaker 1 (01:10):
Do we have a reputation problem generally?

Speaker 2 (01:13):
Do you think New Zealand Tertory education institutions rank really
well internationally? There is no doubt that we rank within
the top five hundreds for universities. Our polytechnic students win
world games and skills and trades consistently, so we don't
have a reputation problem. I think what we have is

(01:34):
a lack of direction problem for our polytechnics. The fact
that we saw the last government and now this government
continually reforming and changing just makes it too hard an
environment for anyone to understand. Staff are leaving great numbers, yes,
and now we see students leaving in great numbers. So
you know, if you disrupt a sector continuously, nobody wants

(01:54):
to join you.

Speaker 1 (01:55):
How do we then explain primary and secondary schools because
they haven't been up disrupted.

Speaker 2 (01:59):
Have they? Well again, COVID totally disrupted that and it
takes a long while for parents to go I'm keen
for my children, my young people to go overseas. It
does take time to build back. Even the universities aren't
back to where they used to be, they're certainly growing
and there's certainly plans to do that. I think what

(02:20):
we've got to do there is just accept that it
is going to take a few more years, not to
rush it because that will harm our reputation. And I
am going to say in terms of the overall reputation
of New Zealand as a place to study, we are
seeing cuts the staffing and staff leaving, which means there
are more students to every staff member. If we don't

(02:41):
address that, that will harm our reputation.

Speaker 1 (02:44):
Well, So Sandra, appreciate your time. Doctor Sandra graam Tertiary
Education Union secretary with us this morning. For more from
the mi Casking Breakfast, listen live to news talks that'd
be from six am weekdays, or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio.