Squeeze on university places to continue

The number of Year 13 students has grown by 37 per cent in the past decade, indicating pressure on universities for places is far from over.

This year 47,247 students are in their final year of high school, 5.4 per cent more than last year. Of those, at least half are expected to seek tertiary study next year - adding to the pressure universities are facing as demand for popular courses continues to grow.

The findings come from the latest School Roll Summary report, which collates statistics based on March figures of how many students are enrolled in schools around the country.

The report said there were 34,483 Year 13 students in 2000, and that rose to 38,238 in 2005.

It shows the number of students nationwide is 749,601 this year, up 0.6 per cent on last year and a 5 per cent increase on 10 years ago.

Part of that increase comes from rising numbers of intermediate and secondary school students.

But the number of children in primary school has fallen in the past 10 years.

This year 39,563 new entrants started school, compared with 45,699 last year.

A Ministry of Education spokesman said the growing number of secondary school students and decreasing number of primary pupils appeared to relate to population statistics.

The report also says the number of international students rose 6.3 per cent in the past decade.

This year, out of 10,755 international students, 588 are in New Zealand on exchange and the remainder are fee-paying students. Nearly half the international students study in Auckland and half are studying at Year 12 or 13, the last two years of high school.

Eighty per cent of fee-paying international students come from Asia, with nearly half of those from South Korea. Just over 1600 of all international students come from Europe, 71 from North America, 452 from South America, 185 from the Pacific, 170 from the Middle East and 19 from Africa.

New Zealand now has 2563 schools in the country - three more than at the same time last year.

During the past year, 11 schools closed but were replaced by 11 new ones - five in Auckland.

The number of students involved in Maori Medium Education decreased this year by 2.2 per cent to 27,047 - the lowest number in five years.

SCHOOL ROLL SUMMARY: 2010

* 2563 schools in NZ, three more than last year
* 749,601 students, 4583 of whom do correspondence
* 16.2 per cent jump in number of Auckland students since 2000
* 80 per cent of international students are from Asia
* More boys in school than girls
* Fewer students in Maori Medium Education