The government of New Zealand has unveiled the new student visa; this was announced by Steven Joyce, who is New Zealand’s Skill, Education, and Employment Minister and by Michael Woodhouse, Immigration Minister. They also said that this new visa would make New Zealand further competitive and it will assist in retaining and attracting the top overseas students.
This new Pathway Student Visa would permit the foreign students as they can take maximum three successive study programs with the chosen education providers, this pathway could be offered by the single or in partnership with the selected education providers, and it would be valid for five years.
According to Mr. Joyce, the Pathway Student Visas would be put into applied from 7th December for the preliminary short period of one and a half year, and it will cover over 500 tertiary, primary and secondary institutions.
Statistics which was revealed earlier this month illustrated that the number of foreign students who are studying in New Zealand on the student visa raised by 16% in the year 2014-15 to around 84,856.
Mr. Joyce told that the foreign education industry is already worth $2.85 billion dollars in the overseas exchange every year and the Pathway Student Visas are in significant initiative that would assist in our aim to double the foreign education to New Zealand by the year 2025.
And According to Mr. Woodhouse, the latest visas would grant guarantee to the students that they are having a visa for their entire intended route of study in New Zealand. The students would also lead to the efficiency benefit for the New Zealand’s immigration department as well as the industry as the students would not require applying for many visas.
He also said that there are protections in place, and that includes the need for the providers for having a 90% international student visa rate of approval for entry in the pilot and entering in the proper agreement between themselves for managing the care and education progress.
He also informed that the one and a half year period would enable the immigration department of New Zealand for assessing the results of the pilot program regarding the pathway student visa like transition rates of students from initial and secondary program of study and how well the preparations between the providers are working.
