KEY POINTS:
Chinese students in New Zealand are advising friends from China to go elsewhere because of restrictions on foreigners seeking jobs here after graduating.
Auckland University of Technology Chinese Students Association president Han (Angel) Zhang says the six-month work permit for international students graduating in New Zealand is too short.
"Even for local Kiwi students, it's difficult to find a fulltime job in a reputable company in six months, but for international students it's harder."
She and her counterpart at Massey University's Albany campus, Jack Li, want the permit extended to one year, as in Australia.
Education New Zealand, which promotes the education system to students overseas, is also lobbying for a one-year permit, and wants us to follow Australia in allowing a wider range of students to work part-time.
At present New Zealand allows overseas students to work for up to 20 hours a week only if they are enrolled in fulltime courses of at least two years.
An International Student Barometer published last week found that only 70 per cent of overseas students here would recommend their university to friends, compared with an average of 83 per cent of foreign students across all seven countries in the study.
Chinese students made up 45 per cent of the 45,000 student visas here in March last year, but the number of visas issued to first-time students from China has plunged from 20,000 in 2001-02 to around 2500 a year (12-14 per cent of the total) in each of the past three years.
Shanghai film director Li Tao, whose film on Chinese students at Hutt Valley High School will screen at the Chinese Association's "Going Bananas" conference this weekend, says New Zealand suffered from bad publicity when two Auckland language schools collapsed in 2003.
Her own film and her three books on New Zealand have presented a more balanced picture, but she says: "I have to say there is still some negative publicity."
AUT student Jun (Rico) Me, 23, says the high kiwi dollar is also driving Chinese students elsewhere.
"If my friend asks me which country, I would not recommend New Zealand any more because people want to go to a foreign country (1) to learn a foreign language, and (2) they like to get permanent residence.
Now the exchange rate is very high and the immigration policy is very strict so I don't think New Zealand is the first suggestion any more."
Mr Li and friends Jack Ang and Rain Qian, all 23, say they would still recommend New Zealand for subjects where this country is a world leader, such as biotechnology and health science, but not for business courses where most of the students are Asian and jobs are almost impossible to get.
"Eighty per cent of the business postgraduate students are Asian. There is one Kiwi who is the only non-Asian person in finance," says Mr Li, an engineering doctoral student.
"For engineering it's okay, but for business most of the Asians find it really, really hard to find a job. More than 80 per cent can't find a job."
Mr Qian, an economics student, would not recommend New Zealand for economics "because the top scholars are in America or Europe".
All 10 of the Chinese students interviewed this week plan to return to China eventually - but all of them also want to work here for a few years first.
Stanley Yang, 19, is typical. He has chosen sports management at Massey because the subject is not available in China but he expects that, with new facilities being built for next year's Olympics, there will be a demand for it in the future.
A Labour Department spokeswoman says Immigration Minister David Cunliffe has the issue of extending the six-month work visa for graduates "under active consideration".
