New Zealand imposed one of the strictest border restrictions to contain the spread of the coronavirus. But now, the government of New Zealand has opened its borders to New Zealand and international students are feeling delighted to see this news. After all, students have waited for so long to execute their plans to study in New Zealand. More than 1500 students are reported to gain early entry to New Zealand in October for higher education. 

The country is now working towards rebuilding its resources to attract high numbers of students after this 2-year pause due to the pandemic. Government promotional and support agency Education New Zealand (ENZ) has planned to onboard 5000 international students by the middle of the current year. It is the agency that is working towards the enhancement of education prospects in the nation and inviting lakhs of students to become critical thinkers and bring education revolution to the world. In the report of the Economist Intelligence Unit, New Zealand ranked at first position among the English-speaking nations to furnish future-focused pedagogy and ranked at 3rd position all over the world. 

How is it going to benefit international students? 

• The Universities are given around 1450 seats for international students of which 1000 are allotted to schools, 1000 are allotted to colleges with the English language, and the remaining to private colleges. For these positions, students will be selected by individual universities pertaining to their admission obligations and eligibility criteria. 

• The government of New Zealand has also planned to increase funding of universities in 2022 for domestic students to equip them with a robust financial position. 

• Before the pandemic, there were more than 110,000 overseas students at all education levels (Including students in 2nd, 3rd, and 4th years) in the 8 prestigious universities but the number came down to 20,000 after pandemic. It will be a wonderful miracle for the government of New Zealand to see the numbers prior to 2020 repeating. 

• Students can expect to see positive response from the study visa authorities and work permit pertaining to fulfilment of eligibility criteria. 

Experts say that many students won’t be able to make it their way to New Zealand before the commencement of classes in the first semester. It is because they can’t apply for a visa until the opening of borders which is scheduled to be in october. Right now, the borders are open for vaccinated people from Australia and other visa waived nations. So, we can expect a high footfall of international students in the upcoming intakes when the borders will be fully reopened. students can expect everything to get normal by February 2023.