Three-quarters of New Zealanders are happy with the numbers of overseas students in their country, with about two in five willing to accept more.
The latest survey of attitudes to international education has uncovered steady levels of support, with 36 per cent of respondents indicating that the current flows of foreign students were appropriate and 41 per cent saying they would prefer higher volumes.
The October survey of 1,100 Kiwis, conducted by the government agency Education New Zealand, also found a widespread view that international education offered national benefits.
About 80 per cent of respondents said overseas students enhanced cultural diversity, contributed to local businesses and brought different perspectives to classrooms.
Chief executive Amanda Malu said the survey portended well for the sector. “It tells us we can continue to steadily grow the number of international students in New Zealand and that they will continue to receive a warm welcome in our communities,” she said.
The sentiment differs markedly from messages delivered in the parliament of Australia, where overseas students’ contribution to migration is shaping up as a battleground issue in next year’s election.
Shadow education minister Sarah Henderson told the Senate that the “government’s opening of the floodgates to record levels of international students” was “fuelling the housing crisis and causing unprecedented chaos”.
Ms Henderson said Australia’s housing supply was not “even close to keeping up” with the “flood of new arrivals”. She said foreign students had contributed to rental increases of up to 20 per cent over the past year in suburbs fringing major university campuses.
Education minister Jason Clare said his government had doubled students’ visa application fees. “Over the last four or five months, that’s dropped the number of applications by 30 per cent,” he told 2GB Radio.
The New Zealand survey found that a sizeable minority of Kiwis also harboured concerns about foreign students’ impacts on home availability. Thirty-six per cent of respondents said the country’s housing, transport and medical infrastructure was not “well equipped” to accommodate international students, up from 29 per cent in 2018.
Concerns about impacts on employment have been trending down, however. Twenty-four per cent of respondents said international students made it harder for New Zealanders to find work, down from 34 per cent in 2018.
Just under a quarter of locals think foreigners “take places from Kiwi students at education institutions”, the survey found.
