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“Education is a transformational
opportunity for people to have choices
and opportunities in life that they
perhaps wouldn’t have had.”
Dawn Freshwater, University of Auckland
“Both of these are not dissimilar to what the government
is having to address. It’s not just protecting public health,
it’s about the adjustment to our liberty and to our
understanding of what’s acceptable, the management of our
anxieties, the way we think about ourselves and our identity
as people, as well as how we think about the economy
going forward. And that’s exactly what I’m having to deal
with as a leader within the university.”
LEVERAGING OUR INTERNATIONAL VALUE
Dawn acknowledges that the government and education
sector need to do a better job of articulating and increasing
understanding of the value that international students and staff
bring to the nation.
“It’s very easy to focus on the importance of the economy,
international students add value from a tourism point
of view and the supporting services in our economy.
What I think people forget about is how our own students
benefit enormously from having international students and
staff on campus. This group provide them with an international
experience simply through their day-to-day interactions,
helping our students to understand and learn different ways of
thinking, how to approach problem solving and how different
cultures work. This international mix creates an important
opportunity for discussion and innovation.”
Rather than the perception of international students taking
jobs away from people within New Zealand, it’s often the
direct opposite as they generate jobs.