新西兰的外国留学生

New Zealand has entered the international education market with both a vengeance and a twist: its state system has such a high overseas reputation that hundreds of state schools make a profit by charging foreign students about NZ$10,000 (US$8,124, €5,460, £4,120) for a year's education.

Education is, according to the website of Education New Zealand, which markets the country's education, “one of New Zealand's top five export industries”. An Education New Zealand spokesman says education resembles the dairy market in one important respect. Fortunes depend on the vagaries of the volatile New Zealand dollar, although applications for 2008 have risen.

South Koreans are the most common foreign students at New Zealand schools, though Education New Zealand says many Germans also come – with a recent wave of Latin Americans. In 2007 about 14,000 foreign students attended state schools.

The popularity of New Zealand schools among South Koreans seems surprising, since South Korea is one of the highest scoring countries in the prestigious Pisa rankings of teenager ability from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. But New Zealand also does well in Pisa. Kim Harase, director of marketing at ACG, which owns a small chain of New Zealand private schools, says: “Parents feel there's a lot of pressure on their children in Korea,” which contrasts with New Zea- land's less hothouse style.

新西兰已经迅猛“钻”入了国际教育市场：它的公立教育系统拥有如此之高的海外声誉，以至于数百所公立学校通过每年向外国学生收取约1万新西兰元（合8124美元）的教育费用，赚了个铜钿满钵。

据该国教育宣传网站“新西兰教育”(Education New Zealand)称，教育是“新西兰五大出口行业之一”。该网站的一位发言人表示，在一个重要的方面，教育与奶制品市场非常相似。这两个行业的运气都取决于波动较大的新西兰元汇率的表现，不过，2008年的入学申请人数已有所增加。

在新西兰学校的外国学生中，韩国人最常见，不过新西兰教育表示，许多德国人也来新西兰留学——最近还出现了一波拉美留学生潮。2007年，约有1.4万名外国学生进入公立学校学习。

新西兰学校受韩国人欢迎的现象似乎颇为令人惊讶，因为在经合组织(OECD)著名的青少年能力排名——国际学生评估项目(Pisa)中，韩国是得分最高的国家之一。但新西兰在Pisa排名中也表现不错。ACG营销总监金•哈拉斯(Kim Harase)表示：“韩国家长感觉，他们的孩子在韩国压力太大了”，这与新西兰较为宽松的教育风格形成鲜明对比。ACG在新西兰拥有一个小规模的连锁私人学校。