Pacific Island student numbers surge

DON SCOTT/ The Press

MOTIVATED: CPIT student Peter Alaifea wants a qualification to help him get a good job.

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A surge in Pacific Island students is helping drive a jump in tertiary enrolments.

A Ministry of Education report reveals a 14 per cent increase in male Pacific Island student enrolments in April compared with last year. There was a 12 per cent rise in female Pacific Island students.

Overall, tertiary education institutions have recorded a 6.2 per cent rise in equivalent fulltime students (EFTS) this year.

This equated to 10,000 more EFTS enrolled in April 2008 than 2009.

Canterbury University Pasifika student adviser Liz Keneti said she was surprised but pleased with the new statistics.

Pasifika students, especially males, were generally under-represented so had some catching up to do.

The university had been using several Pasifika people in its advertising, including two students on its enrolment handbook sent out to high schools.

"A lot of Pasifika role models in the past were sports or music stars, now there's more business and professional people," she said.

Christchurch Polytechnic Institute of Technology student Peter Alaifea is in the first year of a tour sports qualification. The 17-year-old said he left school and started working fulltime in the middle of 2008, but decided it would be a good idea to get a qualification to help him gain a better job.

He said half the students on his course were Pasifika and many of them had decided to study because they could not get work during the recession.

The ministry report showed domestic enrolments of Maori and Asian men increased by about 10 per cent each and for Maori and Asian women the rise was 6 per cent.

The biggest increases were among 18 and 19-year-olds and in higher qualifications such as post-graduate and bachelor.

International enrolments were also up, increasing by almost 10 per cent in April 2009.

One in three doctoral students in New Zealand is an international student, the report says.

The rise in enrolments drove a large increase in people taking up student loans with 11 per cent more students taking out loans in the March 2009 quarter than the same time last year.

The number of student allowance recipients rose 26 per cent compared with the first quarter in 2008.

- © Fairfax NZ News