New Zealand will reopen its borders to students on July 31 and wants to get Brazilians. To show interest in Brazil, New Zealand’s Education Minister, Chris Hepkins, was in Sao Paulo last week. He went to meetings at the University of São Paulo (USP) and at the State Department of Education to set up exchanges. “We would like to see more Brazilians come to study in New Zealand,” the minister said in an interview with Estadão.
In addition to Brazil, he was in Chile and the United States only to announce the opening of the country to foreign students. New Zealand has been on lockdown since March 2020 due to the pandemic and has become known as an example in the fight against COVID-19.
Currently, 74% of the eligible population has already taken the third dose of the vaccine and the government has begun to open borders – in Brazil, that rate is 42%. Just a few months ago, New Zealanders were allowed to travel outside the country, tourism has reopened and now, student visas will be allowed again.
According to Hipkins, before the epidemic, about 3,200 Brazilians went to New Zealand annually using this type of visa, which is required for those who go to study for more than three months. For less time, only tourism time is needed.
But the New Zealand government wants to attract, in addition to those who want to learn English, exchange seekers at universities in the country. “There are many issues that New Zealand and Brazil have in common to work on, that they both care about, such as climate change, renewable energy, agriculture, and indigenous education. We can gain a lot by sharing experiences in this regard,” he says.
New Zealand is the fourth most desired destination by Brazilian students for exchange, and is linked with Australia, according to a survey conducted by the Brazilian Association of Language Education and Travel (Belta) in 2021. Study English as well as undergraduate and postgraduate levels. Prior to the pandemic, the international education sector was the fifth largest source of income for New Zealand’s economy.
The government also wants to encourage Brazilians who have graduated or are studying in areas where the country lacks professionals. There is a list of these activities which include engineering in different fields (civil, chemical, electrical, communications, among others), psychology, psychiatry, radiology, veterinary medicine and nursing.
Previously, any student could continue to work in the state even after completing his studies. The new policy, which begins July 31, allows work only if the foreigner is enrolled in an undergraduate or graduate degree. For those who have a two-year master’s degree, for example, they can still work in the country for another two years.
School closures
Hepkins, who is also the country’s Covid-19 minister, said New Zealand’s public schools only closed for eight months during the entire pandemic – in Brazil, it took two years in several states. Only in Auckland, where there was a spike in cases in 2021, did the school system need to shut down for another eight months. Education in the country is among the best in the world, with a prominent place in Pisa, an examination for students conducted by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).
“Unlike the rest of the world, only now with the borders open are schools learning to deal with COVID-19, and some parents are even afraid to send their young children,” he says. “But, given our high rate of vaccination, we’ve come to the point where staying closed for longer would be more harmful than beneficial.”
Due to the short time that schools were closed, according to the minister, there was virtually no impact on children’s learning measured in the assessments. In Brazil, research has already shown that students’ knowledge of Portuguese and mathematics has declined by a decade.
There, when a student has the virus, they are disqualified and the other families in the class receive free tests. There is no closure of classrooms or schools. “It only happens when all teachers have the virus, there is no alternative, and they have to work from home,” he adds.
The minister did not go to Brasilia and did not request meetings with members of the government of Jair Bolsonaro, who preferred not to comment on this. Instead, speak with USP Dean, Carlos Gilberto Carlotti Jr., and representatives from Unesp and Unicamp, about agreements and exchanges between undergraduate and graduate students.
The University of Auckland, New Zealand, ranks sixth in The Times Higher Education Impact Ranking 2022, a global survey that takes into account the institutions that best align with the 17 United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). USP has around 300 articles published in collaboration with Auckland, and according to the Dean, the intention is to increase this number, with exchanges of students and scholars.
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