As the keynote speaker at Whitireia Polytechnics Auckland Graduation ceremony on Thursday it was like looking out upon a mini United Nations assembly.

Pacific Island, Indian, Chinese, Korean and European students gathered to celebrate the occasion.

As one of the biggest and popular learning establishments in New Zealand, Whitireia has played an important role in our burgeoning billon dollar export education industry.

Attending functions like this last week and similar meetings during the weekend and again this afternoon has prompted me to think further on this subject. I cannot help but ask what can we as legislators do to help and grow this thriving industry?

What concerns the stakeholders and relevant community members confirmed what I have suspected: what the industry lacks is kind of ‘national standard’ (Hello Ms Tolley!).

To quote from an article I wrote on the subject in the New Zealand Herald on previous occasions:

The Ministry of Education has identified a number of other problems, one of which is the inefficiency of an industry populated by a large number of small providers, with varying levels of experience and expertise.

But the real problem is that New Zealand’s laws and regulations do not safeguard the standard expected by Asian customers in particular. “Ghetto education” is a term frequently used by Chinese parents to refer to ill-equipped schools operating in run-down buildings but boasting a big name.

Unregulated agents, who aggressively recruit students by “selling” those schools in return for a large commission, are another contributing factor.

The 1986 Fair Trading Act does not necessarily stop those schools from passing themselves off as “national” or “international” institutes, or “Auckland” or “New Zealand” academies.

In China, the law reserves such titles for reputable educational providers whose name matches their national or regional status. Big names and their perceived standing are, therefore, attractive to Asian students and their parents.

But upon arrival and discovery of what they really are, their hearts sink, and so does New Zealand’s reputation.

For Chinese students and their parents, this country has a credibility issue.

That is relevant because the reputation of the industry and the associated image of the country determine, to a large degree, what kind of candidates are being targeted.

Unless the Fair Trading Act is improved so that at least the names of those schools are representative.

A licensing system to regulate agents would also provide greater protection to prospective students and prevent them from being exploited by unscrupulous operators.

Some quality schools, who could not afford or are unwilling to pay a hefty commission to such agents, have complained they are less competitive than schools that are willing to do so.

Unsurprisingly, the number of international students has dropped dramatically [ ...] By contrast, international student numbers in Australia have grown, this includes sustained growth from China, India and Korea.

To protect and grow this sector, we need vision and a long-term strategy.

If the Education Minister Anne Tolley is so interested in National Standards for a sector that doesn’t want nor understand them, hopefully Tertiary Education Minister Steven Joyce can see that here is an industry which is badly in need of some form of national standard.