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International Education Excellence Awards
Wednesday, 11 August 2010
Every year Education New Zealand awards those institutions that go beyond expectations with their programmes for international students. The International Education Excellence Awards are given out in three categories: Innovation, Student Support, and Marketing.
The 2010 winners are:
Innovation in International Programme: Unitec New Zealand
Unitec has been recognised for their relationship with the Beijing Dance Academy and Beijing Film Academy. They set up student exchanges and co-productions with Beijing Film Academy, and signed a Memorandum of Understandign with the Beijing Dance Academy, China’s elite performing arts school. Through their relationship with Unitec, the Dance Academy hope to develop China’s knowledge of Western contemporary dance. They are particularly interested in Unitec’s video dance programme, which is a collaboration between the contemporary dance and screen arts disciplines.
Excellence in Student Support (tie): Kamo High School
Kamo’s international support staff have been welcoming international students to their school for over a decade, and have realised that it’s just as important to send them home on a positive note.
In the final week of their stay, students at Kamo High School go through a “reorientation” programme. They are encouraged to reflect on their experiences in New Zealand, to acknowledge the sadness they are feeling about the end of their stay, and to start thinking about the friends, family and familiar experiences that await them back home.
The underlying message to departing students is “Don’t be sad you are leaving, be happy that you came.” The school stays in touch with former international students via an e-newsletter, and staff members often meet up with alumni when visiting their home cities.
Excellence in Student Support (tie): Hillcrest High School
Hillcrest High School’s international programme has been so successful that they no longer work through agents, since word of mouth provides them with more enrolments than they can accept!
They support not only their international students, but also the parents of those students and their homestay families. Parents and homestay parents receive newsletters from the school, letting them know what the students have been up to. And a special supper for homestay parents and caregivers allows them to discuss common issues and touch base.
International students at Hillcrest participate in an array of activities including orientation, teacher lunches, international concerts, and an overnight international camp to name a few. An International Committee comprised of international and domestic students have established an annual “International Games” at Hamilton’s Mid Winter Festival.
Excellence in Marketing: Kaikorai Valley College
Among their marketing strategies, Kaikorai Valley has developed sister school relationships with schools in three Japanese cities, as well as schools in Hong Kong, China, Korea, and Germany. Students from these schools participate in short term visits to New Zealand, and many of them return as full time international students.
In China, they wanted to have a presence onshore to help recruit students. The cost of this can be substantial, so Kaikorai Valley went into a partnership with the University of Otago to share the costs of a consultant. This has led to more Chinese students attending the school.
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