Geoff Bilbrough: Education NZ General Manager on the steady and consistent growth of international student numbers

International student numbers are rising but are still lower than before borders were closed due to the Covid outbreak.  

More than 69 thousand students enrolled with education providers in 2023.  

That's a 67% increase compared to 2022, but only 60% of 2019 enrolments.  

International enrolments grew in all subsectors except wānanga.  

Education NZ's Geoff Bilbrough told Mike Hosking that he doubts New Zealand's reputation for international students has been damaged.  

He says our borders were closed for a while and competitors were open earlier, but we're bouncing back and he's optimistic about the future. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
A little bit of hope around the international student speaking
of which is the number now back up to sixty
seven percent, sixty seven percent up on last year. We're
still only at sixty percent of the pre pandemic enrollments.
General Manager of Marketing and Comms for Education New Zealand
Jeff Bilbers with us. Jeff, very good morning to you.

Speaker 2 (00:16):
Good morning Mike shurned me on.

Speaker 1 (00:17):
As you look at the numbers at sixty percent, do
you worry? Do you think I wish we were better?

Speaker 2 (00:23):
Oh? Well, we could always do better, and clearly there's
more to do. But you know, we've only had one
four academic year since the borders opened and we've got
nearly well fix sixty nine thousand enrollment. Yeah, I'm pretty
happy with that. It's got us back to a good chunk,
particularly in the university sector where there nearly back to
eighty six percent of twenty nineteen. So we've had some

(00:43):
good growth in some areas. But yeah, clearly there's more
to do. And picking up on the tomatoes story, it's
good news for the economy to have international students back
in the country.

Speaker 1 (00:52):
That is true. Why aren't we one hundred percent well?

Speaker 2 (00:56):
Intial education it's not like hopping on a place and
coming for a holiday. With all due respect to my
friends at tourism, it's a decision that takes some time. It's,
as someone once said to me, is a decision around
the two most important things in people's lives, their children
and their money. So it takes some time for them
to do their research. These decisions take over two or

(01:18):
three years, so it takes some time. Our borders were
closed for a while and our competitors were open a
little bit earlier, but we had bounced that really well,
and I'm really optimistic about the future. I think the
experience that we give these students, the research shows that
they it's meeting their expectations and that they're willing to
go home and tell their family and friends that they
had a good time. So I think that's all good.

Speaker 1 (01:40):
Yeah, it is. Although I look to Australia, they're back
at one hundred. They've got so many that they've got
a problem. They've changed the visa requirements because they've been
literally flooded with international students. What are they doing that
we're not.

Speaker 2 (01:52):
So immediately after and towards the end of the pandemic,
Australia and Canada both had made a decision to loose
in the settings for interdential students. And what you talked
about is the flood that they received and that's caused
them problems, and the student experience has been poor in
some of those markets, and Canada in particular had very

(02:12):
poor student experience and lost the public perception towards international
education was also damaged, I think as part of that.
So they've really had to change their settings, and frankly,
their settings look a lot more like ours now. And
so our approach has been much more managed, much steadier
and consistent growth, and I think that's been to our

(02:33):
advantage really reputationally.

Speaker 1 (02:35):
Are we damaged or not?

Speaker 2 (02:37):
No, I don't think so. And I think the fact
that we've got sixty nine thousand enrollments suggests that our enrollment,
our reputation is a good place to study, a safe environment,
a quality education, and something that offers both education and
an experience alongside educator quality education. I think our reputation
is intact.

Speaker 1 (02:58):
I'm glad to hear it. Jeff, go well with up Bill.
The sooner we get back to the way we used
to be. The better education New Zealand, general manager of
Marketing and Communications. For more from the mic Asking Breakfast,
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