Salient. Official Newspaper of the Victoria University Students' Association. Vol 41 No. 9. April 24 1978

Historical Background and Formation

Historical Background and Formation

The New Zealand Government's major changes to the policy of the admission of private overseas students to New Zealand universities were announced late October 1976.

a) The number of students from any one country in any one year would be limited to 40% of the total intake; and
b) Private overseas students would be admitted from Middle East Countries to fill the vacuum.

The effect of this decision can be illustrated by the table below which shows the substantial drop in 1977 intake when compared to 1976 intake.

1976 1977 % changes
Auckland 134 111 —17.16
Waikato 66 32 —15.51
Massey 32 32
Victoria 147 78 —46.93
Canterbury 184 105 —42.93
Lincoln 12 7 —41.66
Otago 82 43 —47.56
Total 657 468 —37.9

(Source: OSAC Tables 1976 and 1977)

The anomalies of such a policy are:
1. That there was only an increase in one Middle East student against a substantial drop of about 250 students in 1977. Therefore the promise of in taking Middle East Students to fill the vacuum has not been satisified.
2. That the cutbacks of private overseas students has an apparent effect on Malaysian students alone; in actual fact it affects all the nationalities of overseas students.

The reason for this is simple, when Middle East students were not admitted to fill the vacancies, the total number of overseas students intake per year will be reduced. Then there will be a further reduction of the overseas students intake in the succeeding year as there will be a further reduction in Malaysian students intake, which is calculated at 40% based on the reduced figure of overseas student intake the year before. The continuous reducing of the base figure, which the percentage of a nationality of overseas students is calculated will reach at a certain point, the place where all the nationalities of overseas students are affected.