Those universities have, in turn, attracted the world’s best researchers. According to the National Foundation for American Policy, immigrants earned 45 of the 112 Nobel prizes awarded to Americans in chemistry, medicine and physics from 2000 to 2023.
Great universities attract the best students – from everywhere. In 2023, America exported US$50.2 billion in education services (over NZ$80b).
It might seem weird to think about international students as an export; students arrive by plane while exports generally leave in containers. But teaching foreign students counts as the export of a service in the trade statistics. It was America’s 7th largest service export in 2023; America hosted over 1.1 million foreign students that year.
And the current American administration is burning it all down. It is awful. But it also presents an opportunity for New Zealand’s universities to help students who are otherwise in a very precarious position while also doing well for themselves as part of the bargain.
President Trump believes problems in America’s universities are substantial enough to warrant bans on foreign students attending Harvard, pauses in immigration interviews for students heading to every other American university, and rigorous checks of incoming students’ social media profiles.
Those measures are subject to litigation. Whether the proposed rules stand up remains uncertain. But hundreds of thousands of foreign students living in America will be on tenterhooks.
If they leave the country to see family over the American summer holidays, they might not be allowed back in. If they have the wrong tattoos, they may find themselves in a gulag in El Salvador. And the coming year might see the government just cancel student visas.
Fall semester begins in August. International students who have been accepted to start their studies at American universities will be finalising their immigration paperwork. If they take up study in the US, they risk spending about fifty thousand dollars per year in tuition fees and being deported part-way through their studies.
Those accepted to the very best American schools may be happy to take the risk. Being able to spend even a short amount of time with the world’s best can be worth it. Everyone would know that they were accepted into Harvard, and that they could not be blamed for failing to finish a degree.
But a partially completed degree from a middle-tier university will not be worth very much.
Or put it a bit differently. Imagine that your son or daughter had been accepted into an American university better than any university in New Zealand, but outside of America’s very top tier. They haven’t started yet. Would you encourage them to reconsider? Hundreds of thousands of parents, all over the world, will be asking themselves the same thing.
It will be devastating for America’s universities. People outside of academia really don’t understand the extent to which full-fee-paying international students cover the bills for everyone else. Every country’s government wants to keep university tuition fees down for domestic students, lest parents complain. Every country’s government faces competing demands for taxpayer resources; paying universities to teach and to do research means not paying for something else.
International students bridge the gap. They pay huge amounts in international tuition fees so that they can plug into professional networks unavailable in their home countries and can receive an education better than they could have received at home. Tuition fees for domestic undergraduate students in the US are in the USD$10,000 to $15,000 range; internationals pay $40,000 to $50,000.
The same is true in New Zealand. Domestic tuition fees here are in the $7,000 to $11,000 range; internationals pay $39,000 to $55,000 – and more for a few specialised programmes.
Some here and abroad may receive scholarships that defray that cost – particularly graduate students pursuing doctoral degrees. But otherwise, international students pay up to about four times as much as domestic students.
New Zealand’s universities aren’t likely to attract students who could have gone to Harvard, Berkeley or MIT. The students who would have gone to those universities will instead flow to places like Oxford, Cambridge, Zurich, Singapore, and Toronto. But those places will not have room for everyone. And students currently at excellent US schools outside of the Times Higher Education Top-100 may not have a shot at all. Places like Texas A&M and Ohio State University outrank any university in New Zealand – and unless you’re a football fan, you’ve probably never heard of either of them.
And so, New Zealand universities have the chance to do well while doing good.
The case is simplest for students who have not yet begun US studies and are stuck in limbo with a pause in America’s processing of F-1 student visas, or who just want out of the US.
New Zealand could clearly advertise that any student accepted into an American university and who having second thoughts about it will face simplified processing for a New Zealand student visa. And students who already have their American F-1 student visa could also be offered speedier, simplified NZ student visa processes.
Students part way through their US degrees but nervous about being there next year may prefer to spend a couple of semesters here as study-abroad rather than as a full transfer. New Zealand’s universities already handle study-abroad. It’s a well-trodden path. Reminding students in American universities that this option is available could be very worthwhile.
Tuition fees in the United States are much higher than here. Simplified Immigration New Zealand processes for students already accepted to US universities should mean lower processing costs. The processing charge enabling Immigration New Zealand to do the job should be small when compared to the tuition fee difference between the two countries.
New Zealand is well-placed to assist. Australia has been limiting the number of international students allowed to study there. And New Zealand’s universities, in 2024, had fewer international students than they did in 2019 – according to figures from Education Counts.
Prime Minister Luxon’s pledge to double export earnings had seemed more than a little aspirational.
But international education is an export service. The world’s biggest provider of that service is in disarray.
Doubling the number of international students served by New Zealand universities would previously have meant lowering standards. Now it could mean attracting excellent students who wouldn’t have previously considered New Zealand – while helping a lot of people put into very bad circumstances.
Doing well while doing good seems worth trying.
Dr Eric Crampton is Chief Economist at the New Zealand Initiative. This article was first published HERE
And the current American administration is burning it all down. It is awful. But it also presents an opportunity for New Zealand’s universities to help students who are otherwise in a very precarious position while also doing well for themselves as part of the bargain.
President Trump believes problems in America’s universities are substantial enough to warrant bans on foreign students attending Harvard, pauses in immigration interviews for students heading to every other American university, and rigorous checks of incoming students’ social media profiles.
Those measures are subject to litigation. Whether the proposed rules stand up remains uncertain. But hundreds of thousands of foreign students living in America will be on tenterhooks.
If they leave the country to see family over the American summer holidays, they might not be allowed back in. If they have the wrong tattoos, they may find themselves in a gulag in El Salvador. And the coming year might see the government just cancel student visas.
Fall semester begins in August. International students who have been accepted to start their studies at American universities will be finalising their immigration paperwork. If they take up study in the US, they risk spending about fifty thousand dollars per year in tuition fees and being deported part-way through their studies.
Those accepted to the very best American schools may be happy to take the risk. Being able to spend even a short amount of time with the world’s best can be worth it. Everyone would know that they were accepted into Harvard, and that they could not be blamed for failing to finish a degree.
But a partially completed degree from a middle-tier university will not be worth very much.
Or put it a bit differently. Imagine that your son or daughter had been accepted into an American university better than any university in New Zealand, but outside of America’s very top tier. They haven’t started yet. Would you encourage them to reconsider? Hundreds of thousands of parents, all over the world, will be asking themselves the same thing.
It will be devastating for America’s universities. People outside of academia really don’t understand the extent to which full-fee-paying international students cover the bills for everyone else. Every country’s government wants to keep university tuition fees down for domestic students, lest parents complain. Every country’s government faces competing demands for taxpayer resources; paying universities to teach and to do research means not paying for something else.
International students bridge the gap. They pay huge amounts in international tuition fees so that they can plug into professional networks unavailable in their home countries and can receive an education better than they could have received at home. Tuition fees for domestic undergraduate students in the US are in the USD$10,000 to $15,000 range; internationals pay $40,000 to $50,000.
The same is true in New Zealand. Domestic tuition fees here are in the $7,000 to $11,000 range; internationals pay $39,000 to $55,000 – and more for a few specialised programmes.
Some here and abroad may receive scholarships that defray that cost – particularly graduate students pursuing doctoral degrees. But otherwise, international students pay up to about four times as much as domestic students.
New Zealand’s universities aren’t likely to attract students who could have gone to Harvard, Berkeley or MIT. The students who would have gone to those universities will instead flow to places like Oxford, Cambridge, Zurich, Singapore, and Toronto. But those places will not have room for everyone. And students currently at excellent US schools outside of the Times Higher Education Top-100 may not have a shot at all. Places like Texas A&M and Ohio State University outrank any university in New Zealand – and unless you’re a football fan, you’ve probably never heard of either of them.
And so, New Zealand universities have the chance to do well while doing good.
The case is simplest for students who have not yet begun US studies and are stuck in limbo with a pause in America’s processing of F-1 student visas, or who just want out of the US.
New Zealand could clearly advertise that any student accepted into an American university and who having second thoughts about it will face simplified processing for a New Zealand student visa. And students who already have their American F-1 student visa could also be offered speedier, simplified NZ student visa processes.
Students part way through their US degrees but nervous about being there next year may prefer to spend a couple of semesters here as study-abroad rather than as a full transfer. New Zealand’s universities already handle study-abroad. It’s a well-trodden path. Reminding students in American universities that this option is available could be very worthwhile.
Tuition fees in the United States are much higher than here. Simplified Immigration New Zealand processes for students already accepted to US universities should mean lower processing costs. The processing charge enabling Immigration New Zealand to do the job should be small when compared to the tuition fee difference between the two countries.
New Zealand is well-placed to assist. Australia has been limiting the number of international students allowed to study there. And New Zealand’s universities, in 2024, had fewer international students than they did in 2019 – according to figures from Education Counts.
Prime Minister Luxon’s pledge to double export earnings had seemed more than a little aspirational.
But international education is an export service. The world’s biggest provider of that service is in disarray.
Doubling the number of international students served by New Zealand universities would previously have meant lowering standards. Now it could mean attracting excellent students who wouldn’t have previously considered New Zealand – while helping a lot of people put into very bad circumstances.
Doing well while doing good seems worth trying.
Dr Eric Crampton is Chief Economist at the New Zealand Initiative. This article was first published HERE
4 comments:
At NZ universities students also can avoid subjects they might not pass. In the USA, many or most colleges and universities require students to pass courses in a range of disciplines, including maths.
University students from around the world will suddenly find NZ universities attractive. Sounds like the Castle, tell them they're dreaming.
If this is the great plan from the Initiative, they should look for a new name.
To get this into perspective, it is interesting to note that 3 of the top 10 are British (Oxford, Cambridge, Imperial College London). Europe first appears with ETH Zurich at rank 11. The highest ranking Australian university is Melbourne (31st) and Auckland comes in at rank 152. Want a great university without much of the woke bullshit? Try Singapore at rank 17.
Those who can't make it academically into Asian Universities and come here achieve honours degrees.
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