Drop in foreign students at Toi Ohomai Institute of Technology in 2018

Toi Ohomai graduation at Mokoia campus, March 2018. Photo/File

Rotorua's largest tertiary education provider has seen a 12-14 per cent drop in international student enrolments compared with this time last year.

Toi Ohomai Institute of Technology is one of New Zealand's largest institutes.

It was created after a merger between Bay of Plenty Polytechnic and Waiariki Institute of Technology in 2016.

A marketing spokeswoman told the Rotorua Daily Post 2018 international enrolments were 14 per cent down on enrolments for the same time in 2017 but executive director of student engagement Patrick Brus said it was more like 12 per cent after extra enrolments this week.

He said the enrolment figures were a timing issue more than anything.

"There is no obvious reason why we are slightly down."

Toi Ohomai normally has the equivalent of 1000 fulltime international students per year, mainly from China, the Philippines and India.

Brus said he believed by the end of this year international enrolment figures would not be lower than last year.

"I am quietly confident we will get similar numbers to last year. We have three more intakes in May, July and November to come."

Brus said the dip in foreign student enrolments year-on-year had not been a problem for the institute's budget.

"We did lower our expectations for international revenues. We expected the new government's immigration policies would have an impact but I don't think we have seen that effect yet. It is too early to tell."

Before the election last year Labour announced it would cut net immigration by between 15,000 and 22,000 people a year, through two visa changes for overseas students.

Labour and New Zealand First agreed to take action on migrant and international student exploitation but did not mention any immigration cut in their coalition agreement.