Indian students opting to study in New Zealand are increasingly going for mixed subjects such as environment and sustainability, and creative arts, a top official of Education New Zealand (ENZ) said on Thursday.
“Traditionally students have elected to go for arts, engineering and mathematics… We are seeing growing popularity for some of the mixed subjects where NZ is a world leader in research and university teaching,” John Laxon, ENZ’s Regional Director of South, South East Asia and the Middle East, told IANS over the phone from Mumbai.
“Some of these examples are environment and sustainability, animation and creative arts,” he said.
Laxon announced that Bollywood actress Kriti Sanon will now be representing ENZ in India, and added there has been a 40 per cent increase in Indians studying in New Zealand universities.
“We have had a 40 per cent increase of Indian students studying in universities in New Zealand this year so we are becoming one of the hottest education destinations for high quality Indian students,” he said.
ENZ also announced the New Zealand Excellence Awards (NZEA) Season 2, a unique scholarship scheme which offers ambitious Indian students partial scholarships to study business, fashion and STEM-related programmes (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) at New Zealand varsities.
The second round of the ‘Academic Guest Lecture Series’ was also launched, to showcase New Zealand’s leading academics in the area of engineering, life sciences, ecology, sustainability, social work and business. The lecture series is scheduled across Chennai, Bangalore, Mumbai, Pune and New Delhi from September 4 to 9.
“Our India initiatives aim to profile New Zealand expertise in specialist courses such as animation, fashion, aviation, sports technology, cyber security, energy and conservation in India,” Laxon added.
