Uni overstayer told go or be deported

Mengna Wang paid $40,000 in fees for a degree she cannot now claim. Photo / Dean Purcell

Immigration New Zealand will begin action to deport an overstayer enrolled by AUT University as an international student for two years while in the country illegally.

Mengna Wang, 23, paid about $40,000 in fees to gain her bachelor of business in accounting at AUT, but cannot graduate because she did not have a student permit.

"I now intend to commence deportation action against her," immigration compliance officer Kerry Sweetman said in an email to Miss Wang's agent.

"This may involve her being arrested, taken into custody and deported from New Zealand."

Mr Sweetman said efforts to "locate and serve a deportation order" would only be suspended if she could show proof that she had an airline ticket to leave the country before April 8.

Immigration NZ is investigating AUT and the ICL Business School for enrolling Miss Wang as a student despite the fact that she did not hold a permit.

AUT says it acted in good faith on assurances from Miss Wang that her visa was pending.

She was not granted further student permits after her first one expired in 2007 because Immigration NZ said it did not consider her a "genuine student" after finding out that a forged medical certificate was used to explain her absence from the New Zealand Academy of Studies, where she studied English.

The acting head of Immigration NZ, Steven Dunstan, said yesterday that in the seven months to the end of January, 20 education providers had received written warnings from the service regarding non-compliance with immigration law.

"Education providers are under legal obligation to ensure that only students who have the lawful authority to study ... are permitted to study," Mr Dunstan said.

"They are required to retain a copy of the student visa under the Code of Practice.

"The provider is required to sight the student visa before the student commences studying."

Mr Dunstan said compliance officers had made 234 visits to a total of 70 education providers since last July to make sure that they were meeting their immigration law obligations.

Labour MP Raymond Huo, who has introduced a private member's bill that would require private training enterprises to belong to an organisation with high professional and ethical standards, said AUT's enrolling of an overstayer could further dent the New Zealand export education industry's image abroad.

Mr Huo told Parliament last month that poor standards and ethics by some enterprises had created a "massive credibility issue" for the sector, and terms such as "ghetto education" were being used in China and other Asian countries to describe the state of educational facilities in New Zealand.