Asia critical of cowboy operators, says Banks

By BERNARD ORSMAN

Asian leaders expect New Zealand to lift the excellence of education and welfare for their students, says Auckland City Mayor John Banks.

There is a feeling that the Government and Auckland City had left the international education sector to grow like topsy for too long, Mr Banks said on returning from a mayoral visit to China, Japan and South Korea.

"We were told that there are too many cowboy operators in Auckland who treated their students at best as a commodity and at worst as battery hens," he said.

In the most high-profile case, the Modern Age Institute of Learning closed its doors, leaving students stranded and debts totalling $4.4 million.

Modern Age was one of the country's largest language schools, with six campuses in Auckland, Tauranga, Wellington and Christchurch and branch offices in Korea, Japan and China.

Education Minister Trevor Mallard held high-level talks in Beijing to reassure China over the quality of New Zealand's English language schools after last month's collapse of Modern Age.

This was followed by Mr Banks' trip to Asia where he said political leaders and officials were "full and frank" about their expectations for an industry that has the same economic benefit for Auckland as holding the America's Cup every year.

International students contributed $1.7 billion to the New Zealand economy last year, $900 million of that in Auckland. The industry is expected to be worth $10 billion a year within 10 years.

Mr Banks said there was a lot of goodwill towards New Zealand but China, in particular, had concerns about the viability of the industry, the quality of education and the care and security of students.

It was unhelpful, he said, that most of the 9000 foreign students in Auckland were based in the central city where education schools take up 13.5 per cent of the office space.

"It seems to be that if they were spread across the isthmus they would get a better feel for the city and would be better integrated in the community."

Strategy and governance committee chairman Mark Donnelly, who accompanied Mr Banks to Asia, said the council's central business district strategy needed to address the issues of international students as well as the 55,000 local students attending Auckland University and AUT.

An economic bonanza

International students contributed $1.7 billion to the New Zealand economy last year.

Auckland has 9000 foreign students, who contributed about half of the national total.

The industry could be worth $10 billion a year within a decade.