Asia view: Reaping gains from fast learning curve

By VAUGHAN YARWOOD

New Zealand is on track to earn $1 billion a year by 2004 as a supplier of international education, with up to 80 per cent of the revenue coming from Asia.

This is good news, but better still are the signs of an emerging cohesion within the industry.

In the year to June 2000, the industry contributed an estimated $710 million to GDP, up 24 per cent on the previous year. The total represents almost 0.6 per cent of GDP - twice the sum contributed by the fishing industry and two-thirds that of horticulture.

Seven of the country's top 10 markets for international education are in Asia. Japan leads the numbers league, with 11,176 students enrolled here last year, mostly for short-term English-language courses. South Korean students totalled 4148 in 2000, a 50 per cent increase on the previous year.

But the big mover has been China, with 6368 students in 2000, up from 1979 the previous year. China is now the largest international market for New Zealand's secondary and tertiary institutions.

It's not just the dollar values or the growth figures that should impress, but the less quantifiable benefits that international education bestows on a host country.

Overseas students educated in New Zealand today will be among the politicians, civil servants and industry leaders this country works alongside tomorrow.

And many will not return home at the end of their study. Thirty per cent of overseas-educated tertiary students move to a third country after graduating.

In the case of China, the figure is 70 per cent. This suggests that New Zealand's web of influence may become broad.

Despite the opportunities, exporters of education have not enjoyed a straightforward ride.

The markets for international education in Asia contracted during the recent economic crisis, and some are unlikely to fully recover.

Malaysia, once New Zealand's leading tertiary market, is declining in importance. Japan and South Korea are strong markets for tertiary education, but high disposable incomes mean that students can afford Northern Hemisphere education.

At the other end of the spectrum, China proportionately has the least-educated population in Asia, but the fastest-growing demand for secondary education. Within seven years, it is expected to have the region's third-largest, and fastest-growing, discretionary consumption.

To succeed over the long term in Asia and elsewhere, educators will need to overcome that weakness that besets New Zealand industries in world markets - atomisation.

Often their efforts have suffered from a go-it-alone approach which resembles nothing more than a cavalry charge of individualists in all directions and in their own time.

This is not news to the sector, which in December 1998 set up Education New Zealand to promote New Zealand education internationally and to coordinate the efforts of its 270 members.

Its chief executive, Lester Taylor, says the industry is having to learn an old lesson: that the competition comes not from rivals down the road but from other countries.

To underscore the point, Mr Taylor quotes research showing that students first decide on the country they want to study in, and only then decide on the provider.

The job of marketing New Zealand as a study destination has been taken up by the International Education Marketing Network.

Formed in late 1999 by Education NZ, Trade NZ and Tourism NZ, the network will in May begin a worldwide educational branding exercise.

For the country's international educators, it will be an important step on the road to unity.

* Vaughan Yarwood can be contacted at hiero@ihug.co.nz