Universities are expecting thousands of foreign students to start enrolling now that Immigration New Zealand has reopened visa applications.
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The enrolments mark the beginning of the rebuild of what used to be a $5 billion industry covering not only universities, but also schools, polytechnics and language schools.
Universities warn it could be several years until the number of foreign students returns to pre-pandemic levels.
The University of Auckland's director international Ainslie Moore said in the past two and a half years the number and nature of its foreign enrolments has changed a lot.
"In 2019, we had just under 8500 international students enrolled with us over the course of the year," she said.
"In 2022, we've got just shy of 8000 students.
"The really key difference is many of those students are part-time, rather than fulltime and over half of them are offshore."
Moore said some students were hoping to come to New Zealand to start their studies in the next few months, while others were looking ahead to next year.
She said she hoped Immigration New Zealand would prioritise visa applications from those who wanted to come soon.
"What we'd call for is Immigration New Zealand to take an approach to processing those visas that prioritise students who needed to be here for the start of semester for example, over and above visa applications without a deadline for arrival," she said.
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$40m hit
University of Otago's director of international Jason Cushen said it has lost more than $40 million in international student revenue since the start of the pandemic.
He said the university was expecting a good number of enrolments next year followed by slower growth in following years.
"It will be a number of years before we get back to the number of students that we were enrolling in 2019," he said.
"We're expecting a bounce back initially followed by a slow growth period."
The removal of border restrictions was not the only factor affecting enrolments.
Other countries' Covid-19 restrictions will also have an impact.
China is New Zealand's single-biggest source of foreign students and the University of Waikato's international director Sharon Calvert said its tough stance on the virus will affect enrolments.
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and Education Minister Chris Hipkins have been overseas promoting New Zealand as a study destination.
Education New Zealand chief executive Grant McPherson said those trips have helped put New Zealand back on the map.
"What we're hearing and seeing is quite substantial demand," he said.
"The key is to guide the students to prefer to come to New Zealand."