Students up but fees down

International students make a big contribution to the economy. Photo / Greg Bowker

The number of international students enrolling in English language schools rose by 13 per cent in the year to March, a Statistics New Zealand survey has found.

But while the rise may appear positive for an industry that has suffered falling student numbers in recent years, the survey also shows fees collected by schools fell by $2.2 million to $140 million.

English New Zealand chairman Rob McKay said the drop in fees collected could be a result of students taking shorter courses because of the recession.

"The economic crisis has possibly meant spending power is not there," McKay said.

The Statistics New Zealand figures also indicated that the total number of student weeks completed increased by 1.7 per cent.

The impact of a small increase in student weeks could have been lessened by the discounts schools are often forced to give on fees, McKay said.

Tim Mahren Brown, director of the Campbell Institute, an English language school with campuses in Auckland and Wellington, said the school had strong sales figures in the year to March 2010.

But since March, business had dropped off, he said.

Mahren Brown said one of the biggest issues facing his school was slow visa-processing times for prospective students.

The processing time in Vietnam, for example, had been two to four weeks eighteen months ago.

Mahren Brown said the time Vietnamese English language students were now forced to wait for New Zealand visas had increased to between six and eight weeks.

"In the meantime we're missing out on valuable students and cash flow."

McKay said another challenge facing New Zealand English language providers was the fact that their students were not automatically allowed to work part-time jobs in this country.

Students first had to pass an English proficiency test, which did not make sense if the reason they were coming to New Zealand was to learn the language.

This "anomaly" was resulting in students opting to study in countries such as Australia where a part-time work visa was automatically granted to English language students enrolled in courses longer than six months, McKay said.

He said English New Zealand was working with the Government to solve this problem.

The English language school sector earns New Zealand $504 million a year.