Students who don't go home

Harshal Shar (centre left, in red scarf) celebrates Diwali in New Zealand, where he wants to stay. Photo / Supplied

Harshal Shah has come from Gujarat in India to study - and he does not want to go home.

The 23-year-old business management student at the National Technology Institute in Auckland says he plans to make New Zealand his home, and will sponsor his fiancee, still in India, once he gets a job after graduating next year.

Because Mr Shah is from India, the chances of him succeeding in his migration plan and finding work are higher than those of students from any other country, a Department of Labour study has found.

The report, Life after Study: International Students' Settlement Experiences in New Zealand, was released yesterday at the Immigration Pathways conference in Wellington. Researchers used data from the Department of Labour, the Transitions survey of skilled migrants and the Longitudinal Immigration Survey: New Zealand for the report.

"Even controlling for other factors, students from India were significantly more likely to transition to work and/or residence than were students from China" the report said.

"Students from both countries had higher rates of transition than students from other regions."

Indian students had the highest rate of transition to work, at 72 per cent, followed by students from China at 43 per cent.

Students from India also had the highest rate of transition to permanent residence - 47 per cent, ahead of the Chinese at 23 per cent.

"We found that, irrespective of factors such as students' age, gender and education sector, a student's source country had the greatest effect on their likelihood of transition to work or residence," the report found.

It says New Zealand's per capita rate of 15 international students per 1000 people is the highest in the OECD.

The number of student coming from India has grown more than 300 per cent in the past last four years, from an average of 2200 students between 2002 and 2006 to 9072 last year.