IMMIGRATION INDUSTRY PARTNERSHIPS WITH EDUCATION PROVIDERS Purpose

Transcription

1 In Confidence Office of the Minister of Immigration Cabinet Economic Growth and Infrastructure Committee IMMIGRATION INDUSTRY PARTNERSHIPS WITH EDUCATION PROVIDERS Purpose 1. This paper (one of a suite of three papers relating to export education): proposes to establish an immigration industry partnership model for export education providers to facilitate faster, lower intervention visa processing for students of selected high quality providers, and describes plans underway to commence an interim pilot for the 2014 academic year to test the key features of the partnership model with a small number of education providers, with a view to rolling it out more widely in the 2015 academic year. Executive Summary 2. Enabling high quality education providers to facilitate faster visa processing for their international students will give them a marketing advantage and assist them to be more internationally competitive. Industry partnerships between Immigration New Zealand 1 (INZ) and education providers, whereby risk and responsibility are shared between the two parties, will help achieve this. 3. Industry partners will be able to choose whether to offer streamlined visa processing to students or request a full INZ evidential assessment. If choosing streamlined visa processing, the industry partner will be responsible for satisfying itself that the student: has sufficient maintenance funds has genuine intentions to study is choosing an appropriate course, and meets all the course entry requirements, and is likely to adhere to the conditions of their visa and leave the country when required to do so. 4. Industry partnerships are a deliberate strategy to meet the aspirations in the 2011 Export Education Leadership Statement and contribute to sector growth by incentivising education providers to strive for high education standards and take more responsibility for good immigration outcomes. Both these factors will enhance New Zealand s international reputation as a high quality study destination. 5. The industry partner would benefit from many of their students visa applications undergoing fewer checks, lower intervention, prioritised processing and therefore swifter decisions. There would also be a significant brand value associated with being an 1 INZ is part of the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment. 1

2 officially recognised partner of Immigration New Zealand government, especially in important markets such as China. 6. Industry partnerships would be voluntary and open to all types of education providers. Eligibility would be based on high education quality, compliance with the Code of Practice for the Pastoral Care of International Students (the Code), and meeting indicators of good immigration outcomes. Over half of Private Training Establishments (PTEs) and around 40 per cent of institutes of technology and polytechnics (ITPs) would not be eligible to participate. Those providers are likely to complain that they would be placed at a competitive disadvantage relative to their domestic competitors. 7. The industry partner would be accountable for the immigration outcomes of all its international students through regular monitoring against immigration indicators by INZ. While ultimate responsibility for immigration decisions will remain with INZ, graduated sanctions would apply so that education providers that make poor student recruitment choices or fail to make adequate checks before offering streamlined visa processing will face consequences. 8. It is proposed to roll out the export education partnership model with INZ s new Immigration Online ICT platform in In the 2014 academic year, plans are under way for INZ, in collaboration with Education New Zealand, the Ministry of Education, and the New Zealand Qualifications Authority (NZQA) to commence a pilot to test the key features of the partnership model with a small number of education providers within the limitations of its existing ICT system. Proposal: Immigration industry partnerships for export education providers A cross-agency framework 9. As part of INZ s Vision 2015, industry partners will be offered the opportunity to play a greater role in immigration decisions that involve them. The proposed partnership model for export education providers is a cross-agency framework. It would encompass education quality assurance systems, the Code and indicators of good immigration outcomes, to identify the best providers. Education providers that participate in the partnership model would be offered the benefits of faster visa processing and fewer immigration checks for their students, in exchange for taking more responsibility for their students immigration outcomes. 10. Australia offers to education providers (universities only) an industry partnership model that includes streamlined visa processing and checks by immigration authorities of performance against immigration indicators. In the United Kingdom, education providers may only enrol international students if their previous students have complied with high immigration requirements during and after study. 11. Details of how the proposed New Zealand end-state industry partnership model is intended to operate are described below. Some details may change depending on lessons learned from the piloting of the model and the implementation of Immigration Online. Eligibility criteria for export education partners 12. Industry partnership would be open to all types of education providers: universities, wānanga, institutes of technology and polytechnics (ITPs), PTEs and schools. Eligibility would be based on providers being of high education quality, meeting indicators of good immigration compliance, and meeting their obligations under the Code. 2

3 Assessing high education quality 13. The NZQA is responsible for the quality assurance of all PTEs, ITPs and wānanga. Education providers are rated on education quality and on capabilities in selfassessment under NZQA s External Evaluation and Review (EER) process. Category 1 providers are the highest performers and Category 4 the lowest performers. To meet the education quality criteria for industry partnerships, ITPs and PTEs would need to be rated as Category 1 under the EER. 14. Around 44 per cent of PTEs and 53 per cent of ITPs that have completed an EER meet this quality standard (see Table One below). Some providers (including 92 PTEs) have yet to have a first EER, or have their EER results finalised. The numbers in Table One may therefore vary at the time of implementation. Table One: Eligible providers that meet education quality criteria, by provider type Number of eligible providers (proportion in that sector) Student visas granted linked to eligible providers in universities (100%) 21, ITPs (59%) 7,000 1 wānanga (50%) None 224 PTEs (44%) 8, schools (100%)* 11,000 *Subject to Education Review Office check 15. Universities not subject to external quality evaluation and reporting by NZQA would be automatically deemed to meet the education quality criteria. The New Zealand Vice Chancellors Committee (operating as Universities New Zealand) is the statutory body with primary responsibility for quality assurance matters in the university sector. The Education Review Office (ERO) evaluates and reports annually on schools compliance with the Code, and on the quality of education provided for international students in applicable schools. INZ will check with ERO whether ERO has any quality concerns about individual schools before inviting them to participate as industry partners. School students have an excellent track record of immigration compliance to date. Establishing indicators of good immigration compliance 16. To ensure the good reputation and integrity of the immigration system, it is important that industry partnership status only be available to providers who take responsibility for, and successfully ensure, good immigration compliance. A robust set of immigration indicators will be developed, which are likely to include the following: the proportion of prospective students associated with the education provider who are declined a student visa whether the provider has been subject to any immigration compliance action or any action taken by the Immigration Advisers Authority whether the provider has enrolled any students without an appropriate visa 3

4 the proportion (or number) of students who have become unlawful at the end of their visa, and the proportion (or number) of students who have breached the conditions of their visa, measured through students who are liable for deportation. 17. A provider s performance against the immigration indicators would be assessed on the compliance of all international students associated with that provider (regardless of whether they benefit from streamlined processing or not) for a specific, pre-determined review period. Continued industry partnership status would be conditional on continued performance against these indicators. Compliance with the Immigration Advisers Licencing Act The Immigration Advisers Licencing Act (the IALA) requires that any person providing immigration advice must be licensed or exempt from licensing. There is a specific exemption for persons providing advice on student visas from outside New Zealand. Education providers in New Zealand are not covered by this exemption, and any person associated with them would need to be licensed (or otherwise exempt) in order to provide immigration advice. 19. Under the pilot, education providers are not expected or required to provide immigration advice. For example, providers are not asked to liaise with applicants and request additional documentation in order to strengthen an application. INZ will work with providers to help ensure they are aware of their obligations under the IALA. 20. It is not yet clear whether the role of education providers under the future model will include functions that are considered to be giving immigration advice (and therefore require a licence). The Ministry is working to determine the full range of functions that will be undertaken by providers under this model and considering options for compliance within the bounds of the IALA. Supporting compliance with the Code 21. Eligibility for industry partnership would also include a requirement that an education provider must not have been subject to any compliance action under the Code, during the same review period that applies to immigration indicators. Key features of the partnership model Streamlined visa processing 22. Industry partners will be able to choose whether to offer streamlined visa processing to students or request a full INZ evidential assessment. If choosing steamlined visa processing, the industry partner will be responsible for satisfying itself that the student: has sufficient maintenance funds to support themselves during their say has genuine intentions to study is choosing an appropriate course meets all the course entry requirements, and is likely to adhere to the conditions of their visa and leave the country when required to do so. 4

5 23. Currently, certain larger education providers carry out similar checks for returning students through Students Online. The checks by industry partners would be extended to include first-time students applying from outside New Zealand. Unlike current Students Online providers, industry partners would not be required to keep records on behalf of INZ, as the information upon which they base their assessment will already have been loaded into Immigration Online by the student and be available to INZ. 24. Streamlined applications that trigger generic risk indicators (for example, first-time students applying from developing countries for low-level courses) would be subject to a lower level of scrutiny than would be the case if they had not been nominated for streamlined processing by the industry partner. This will speed up the visa processing, but puts a strong onus on the provider to ensure that they check the students credentials carefully. Visa applications accorded higher priority and subject to lower intervention 25. All student visa applications associated with industry partners, regardless of whether the provider has nominated for streamlined processing or not, will also receive priority processing. This means that INZ will accord any processing and verification tasks associated with that application higher priority than similar tasks for student visa applications that are not associated with industry partners. Shared benefits of an industry partnership with export education providers 26. Clear support by INZ for high quality education providers will reinforce the reputation of New Zealand as a quality education destination. This in turn will help New Zealand continue to attract students to sustainably grow the export education sector. 27. The export education industry partnership model would directly benefit providers, international students, and INZ. Shared benefits include: international students who enrol with industry partners would be offered a faster visa decision industry partners, through being able to offer streamlined visa processing for their students, would gain a marketing advantage and may be less likely to lose prospective students to overseas competitors export education providers would be incentivised to: - strive for high education standards, which would enhance New Zealand s reputation as a high quality destination for students - select students carefully and take more responsibility for good immigration outcomes, and INZ s frontline administrative burden would be reduced, enabling improved timeliness and a shift of resource to back end monitoring and compliance activity.. Risks and risk management of partnership model Complaints from providers excluded from partnership 28. Around 56 per cent of PTEs and 47 per cent of ITPS would not be eligible for partnership because they do not meet the education quality criterion (Category 1 on the EER) and others may not meet immigration criteria. Those providers are likely to complain that they are being placed at a competitive disadvantage with industry partners. 5

6 29. Offering industry partnership only to providers that demonstrate high quality is a deliberate strategy to incentivise providers to strive for high standards of education quality and immigration compliance. Education providers with a Category 2 rating under the EER would not normally be subject to a subsequent EER for three to four years. However, a provider that has made changes to improve its educational performance and believes it would meet the requirements to be allocated into Category 1 has the ability to request an earlier re-assessment from NZQA. Such requests are considered on a case by case basis by NZQA. Industry partners not doing appropriate checks on students before offering streamlined processing 30. If industry partners do not do appropriate checks on students before offering streamlined processing: non-genuine students may attempt to use the industry partnership system as an easy way to gain entry to New Zealand and its labour market, and students may not have sufficient funds to support themselves, potentially exposing them to risks of workplace exploitation. 31. INZ would manage these and other immigration risks by: retaining responsibility for checking students health and character sampling a portion of streamlined visa applications to check the quality of partners decisions (at a level sufficient to meet quality assurance standards, while limiting interference up to five per cent is envisaged) maintaining a right to do further verification on a streamlined application where risk factors associated with it outweigh the benefit of facilitation establishing robust monitoring and assurance processes, to assess students immigration outcomes and providers on-going needs for training and guidance auditing an industry partner s processes where INZ considers this warranted, and imposing graduated sanctions where the provider failed to perform well against the immigration indicators or any other eligibility criteria. 32. Graduated sanctions could include increasing the proportion of streamlined visa applications selected for sampling; suspending facilitation for higher risk student categories (such as limiting streamlined applications to returning students); temporarily suspending facilitation pending improvement of identified issues; or withdrawing/not renewing the provider s partnership status. Sharing of risk and accountability through industry partnership 33. Industry partners will be more accountable for their own immigration compliance and that of their students. While the ultimate responsibility for immigration decisions and the costs of dealing with students in breach of immigration rules will remain with INZ, the proposed sanctions (see paragraph 32 above) will mean that education providers making poor student recruitment choices or being negligent of their responsibilities will face consequences. 34. The potential to lose industry partnership status, in particular, is expected to be a strong deterrent. The withdrawal of industry partnership status, and publicity surrounding such 6

7 a withdrawal, would be expected to impact an education provider s international reputation and recruitment abilities. 35. This initiative is a conscious, transparent decision by INZ to share a greater degree of risk and accountability with high quality education providers in the interests of enhanced facilitation, with the competitive advantages it will bring. Industry partnerships will need to be supported by an effective monitoring and review function that ensures any adverse outcomes are promptly and efficiently managed. 36. Regular reports on providers performance against the immigration indicators would mean both INZ and industry partners are aware of, and in a position to address, any emerging risks. INZ would follow up any such report with advice to education providers on managing immigration risks, as well as on-going training and support for best practice in assessing students maintenance funds and bona fide documentary evidence. Interim pilot of the partnership model 37. It is proposed to test the partnership model through an interim pilot, starting in the 2014 academic year, using INZ s existing ICT system. The interim pilot will be limited to first time offshore student visa applicants only. This is to prevent any confusion with the existing Students Online system which operates for students who are already onshore. 38. A small number of providers (up to 25 initially) will be invited to participate in the interim pilot. The providers invited to participate will represent a cross section of education providers (universities, ITPs, PTEs and schools). As students attending schools generally present very low immigration risk, only a small number of schools proportional to other sectors will be invited to participate. The same eligibility criteria will apply for the interim pilot as that proposed for the end-statement model (subject to incorporation of lessons learned). 39. There may be complaints from providers that meet the eligibility criteria for the end-state partnership model but are not invited to participate in the pilot. INZ, in collaboration with Education New Zealand, the Ministry of Education and NZQA, is developing a transparent selection method for the pilot. 40. The pilot will be evaluated and lessons learned will inform the development of the endstate model. The end-state model is expected to commence in the 2015 academic year, when enhanced ICT capability is expected to be available through Immigration Online. The Minister of Immigration will consider the results of the pilot and any adjustments required before approving the roll-out of the industry partnership model to the wider sector. As noted in paragraph 42 below, if after reprioritisation within INZ baselines, additional funding for the roll-out is required, Cabinet approval would need to be obtained via a review of immigration fees. Consultation 41. Education New Zealand, Education Review Office, Ministry of Education, Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade, New Zealand Qualifications Authority, Tertiary Education Commission, Immigration Advisers Authority and the Treasury have been consulted. The Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet has been informed. 7

8 Financial Implications Costs to INZ 42. The cost of the pilot will be met from reprioritisation within INZ baselines. The cost of the evaluation will be met within existing migration research funding. From 2015/16, when INZ intends to roll-out the sector-wide industry partnership model, the cost of the initiative will be met by reprioritisation from within INZ baselines or a future immigration fees review, or a combination of the two. These initial estimates of costs and savings will be refined through the pilot process along with an assessment of the benefits. If, after reprioritisation, additional funding for this initiative was considered to be required, Cabinet approval would be required for any fees changes. Table Two: Estimated costs/savings of industry partnership for education providers Items Staffing (relationship management, assurance and compliance) Other (travel and accommodation, training materials) 13/14 $ 14/15 $ Pilot total $ 15/16 $ 16/17 & out years $ 85, , ,000 1,050,000 1,260,000 60,000 60, , , ,000 AMS changes 40,000-40, Pilot evaluation 14,000 28,000 42, Total costs 199, , ,000 1,216,667 1,410,000 Expected savings - (300,000) (400,000) Net costs 199, , , ,667 1,010,000 Costs to participating education providers 43. Participation is likely to require additional staff resources by providers to assess students documentary evidence. Participation by education providers in the industry partnership initiative is voluntary. Education providers would need to assess the costs and benefits to them when deciding whether or not to participate. Human Rights 44. The proposals are consistent with the New Zealand Bill of Rights Act 1990 and the Human Rights Act Legislative Implications 45. There are no legislative implications arising from the proposals. Regulatory Impact Analysis 46. A regulatory impact statement is not required. Publicity 47. Low key publicity targeted to the education sector will occur when the pilot of the partnership model is launched. Immigration New Zealand is preparing a stakeholder engagement plan in collaboration with Education New Zealand, NZQA and the Ministry of Education. 8

9 Recommendations 48. The Minister of Immigration recommends that the Committee: 1. note that enabling high quality education providers to facilitate faster visa processing for their international students will give them a marketing advantage and assist them to be more internationally competitive; 2. agree that Immigration New Zealand, in collaboration with Education New Zealand, the Ministry of Education and the New Zealand Qualifications Authority (NZQA), establishes a pilot of an immigration industry partnership model with a small number of export education providers (up to 25) for the 2014 academic year; 3. agree that the education providers invited to participate in the pilot will be selected on the basis of: 3.1 representing a cross section of education providers (universities, institutes of technology and polytechnics (ITPs), private training establishments (PTEs), and schools; 3.2 demonstrating high education quality, which in the case of ITPs and PTEs means being assessed by the NZQA as Category 1 under its External Evaluation and Review process; 3.3 complying with the Code of Practice for the Pastoral Care of International Students; and 3.4 performing well against certain immigration indicators; 4. note that the pilot will test the industry partnership model with a view to it being rolled out more widely from 2015 when enhanced functionality through Immigration Online becomes available; 5. note that the industry partnership model is expected to: 5.1 benefit export education partners by facilitating faster, lower intervention visa processing for their students; 5.2 incentivise education providers to strive for high education standards to meet eligibility criteria which would enhance New Zealand s reputation as a high quality destination for international students; and 5.2 encourage education providers to select international students carefully and take more responsibility for good immigration outcomes; 6. note that the net cost of piloting the partnership model with export education providers over 2013/14 and 2014/15 is estimated at $457,000 and will be met by reprioritising within Immigration New Zealand baselines; 7. note that initial estimates of the net cost of rolling out the partnership model with the wider export education sector are $916,667 in 2015/16, and $1,010,000 in 2016/17 and out years, and if after reprioritisation, additional funding for this initiative is required, Cabinet approval would be sought through a review of immigration fees; and 9

10 8. agree that the Minister of Immigration will consider the results of the pilot and any adjustments required before approving the roll-out of the industry partnership model to the wider sector, and if additional funding is required as noted in recommendation 7, will seek Cabinet approval. Hon Michael Woodhouse Minister of Immigration / / 10