30/06/2023, Auckland – On the back of the New Zealand Prime Minister’s visit to China, attention is turning to the state of recovery in the education sector. However, Founder of global marketing agency, United Media Solution (UMS), Jessica Miao, says the slow pace of recovery underscores a pressing need for further action and collaboration across sectors and industries.
“In the lead-up to the pandemic, interest and enrolment from China was already starting to wane, so New Zealand has a long road ahead to recover student numbers compared to popular study destinations such as the UK and Canada. It’s vital that New Zealand education brands collaborate with other industries, such as tourism, to win back its share of the market,” said Jessica.
During the PM’s visit, an agreement was signed in Beijing regarding the mutual recognition of higher education degrees, as well as a strategic partnership between Education New Zealand and Air New Zealand. This will be valuable for New Zealand to build up potential interest from advanced postgraduate and PhD students in China.
Alistair Crozier, Executive Director of the New Zealand China Council describes the economic value of Chinese students studying in New Zealand.
“The wider value for New Zealand when hosting students from China (and other countries) is sometimes overlooked. Revenue to our educational institutions is a significant direct benefit, as is tourism spent when students and their visiting families and friends explore our country. But it’s the longer-term links that can be even more lucrative.”
“Those who study with us often maintain lifelong business, investment, travel, research, and higher education links with New Zealand, for themselves and their children, or migrate to contribute their skills permanently to our economy. Considering all these flow-on benefits gives a truer sense of the real value of Chinese education links for New Zealand,” said Alistair.
A recent report from Education New Zealand indicated that 75% of 2019 student levels could be reached by 2026, whereas the UK and Canada are up 55% and 74% respectively on 2019 levels. This still represents a significant loss for the sector that has flow-on effects for staffing and resourcing at leading institutions that have already had significant cutbacks during the pandemic.
UMS has been working with education brands in New Zealand to help connect them with prospective students through platforms like WeChat, China’s biggest social media platform with over 1.671 billion monthly active users, and Bilibili, China’s version of YouTube. Unlike western markets that primarily use websites to promote their offerings, Chinese students are more concerned with a brand’s presence on social media, and these are ideal channels for promoting courses, campus life, and support services.
The current recovery efforts show promise, and it is essential to further these efforts to harness the sector’s full potential and ensure that New Zealand continues to offer high-quality education and transformative experiences to students worldwide.
About United Media Solution
United Media Solution is a full-service digital marketing agency that helps connect brands around the world with China’s competitive marketplace. We represent clients from China, UK, US, Australia, and New Zealand. Their businesses cover various fields and industries including, Tourism bodies, Airlines, FMCG, F&B, and government agencies.
https://www.umssocial.com/
