Amanda Malu: Education New Zealand Chief Executive says international student numbers are recovering

International students are loving their time in New Zealand, as new data shows a steady recovery in enrolments.

The 2025 International Student Experience Survey shows the number of students enrolled in domestic institutes, has increased 16% to almost 64,000 since 2024.

It found 87% of students gave a positive rating of their overall experience.

Education New Zealand Chief Executive Amanda Malu told Mike Hosking that students value the connections they make, the overall living experience, and the visa process.

She says there's a 10% jump in students finding the via process positive.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
So we appear to have some sort of liftoff in
terms of international student numbers returning to the country, which
is good. New stats enrollments are up sixteen percent on
last year, forty nine percent higher than twenty twenty three.
We're sitting at sixty three six hundred and ten. China
and India the key markets, but we have follow up
from Japan, Sri Lanka. In the US, Amanda Marley was
the Chief Executive of Education New Zealand and is with us. Amanda,

(00:21):
good morning, Good morning. We see a big increase in
good value for money. Is that perception from these students
or is that real? And if it's real, what's changed.

Speaker 2 (00:30):
I think it's a bit of both. Actually, I think
they definitely are valuing the education they get here in
New Zealand. We're seeing that come through in their feedback.
There's probably some some play there for at WUR exchange rate,
but definitely we'd say from the feedback they are enjoying
their time here and they feel they are getting value
from that time here.

Speaker 1 (00:49):
Good The numbers are just a result of post COVID.
It was always going to happen in some way, shape
or form, or has there been a push, and the
push is working ooka.

Speaker 2 (00:57):
I think this is a real credit to the work
there sector has really done over the last couple of
years to get back out into market and really push
New Zealand as a study destination. So it's definitely a
result of the hard work. There's more push to be done,
and we've got really great plans to do that, so
I think we can We're on a really good path here.

Speaker 1 (01:18):
Good sixty three thousand plus. How full are we? What
could we do reasonably? Do you think?

Speaker 2 (01:24):
Well? Our plan is to double the value of international
education by twenty thirty four, so we're looking at really
steady growth. We're not looking at the boombust cycle we've
seen in other parts of the world. We're really taking
a considered approach to this. We've worked with the sector.
We understand what the capacity looks like in universities and schools, polytechnics,

(01:46):
and we're really trying to support them to basically get
back to that back capacity.

Speaker 1 (01:52):
Is the visa thing smooth now?

Speaker 2 (01:54):
The visa thing actually is getting some great feedback from students,
so that was a real positive. Our student experience survey
that showed a ten percent jump in the number of
students rating the time it takes to get their visa
really positively and that's a real credit to the work
going on. Like beyond providers, this is a full court
press here and immigrations doing their part two, which is

(02:16):
really great good stuff.

Speaker 1 (02:17):
Nice to get the Mandamala who's the chief executive Education
New Zealand. Sri Lanka and Nepal have jumped, I assume
off low bases, but so it's not all China and India.
You've got Japan, Sri Lanka in the US, but also
Sri Lanka and Nepal, which was encouraging.

Speaker 2 (02:32):
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