NEW ZEALAND

Figures reveal COVID losses in international student fees

Figures collected as part of the New Zealand government’s export education levy show institutions received NZ$250 million (US$153 million) less from foreign students’ fees in 2020 than they did in 2019, and NZ$610 million less in 2021. This year’s fees would be even lower because there were fewer students, writes John Gerritsen for Radio New Zealand.

Immigration New Zealand told RNZ there were just 14,639 international students with valid study visas in New Zealand when the border fully reopened on 31 July 2022, down from about 60,000 when the pandemic began in March 2020. In total, international students paid NZ$594 million in fees in 2021, NZ$963 million in 2020 and NZ$1.2 billion in 2019.

The export education levy figures showed that the fees paid to private tertiary institutions that received no government funding, such as language schools, were worst hit by the pandemic, dropping 88%, from NZ$135 million in 2019 to NZ$16 million last year.
Full report on the RNZ site