International students a bridge between New Zealand and Malaysia past and present

Part 4 of a series of 4 - The stories of Malaysian students who were educated 8000km away from their homes during the 1960s and 70s.

Malaysian students, past and present, play an essential role in shaping New Zealand's increasingly multicultural future. Society can learn from educational interactions of the past, which is reflected in immigration policies from both countries.

On his most recent visit to Auckland, 1966 Otago University graduate and former Malaysian politician Leo Moggie reflected on sighting signs in both English and Mandarin: "It's surprising as we didn't see that in my study days."

In 1970, just 354 Asians migrated to New Zealand. In January 2023, Stats NZ recorded there were 28,800 migrants from China alone.

The Colombo Plan or other development schemes aided most overseas students in the 1950s and 60s. For some New Zealand universities, this was the first time they had provided training to international students.

More than 5000 scholars were awarded scholarships between 1951 and 1978. Scholarships were based on school performance, and with very few good grades at the time, the minimum qualification was low.

However, in 1971, the New Economic Policy was drawn up in Malaysia.

Bumiputera were given preferential admission to the few Malaysian universities at the time. The idea was higher education would lift people out of poverty; bumiputra comprised the majority of low-income families (74 percent, according to the World Inequality Index).

As a result, the other Malaysian ethnicities began to send their children overseas to study. Of the 19,000 Malaysian-born people in New Zealand, a quarter are Malaysian Chinese, followed by Malay and smaller groups.

When ethnicity affects education

In New Zealand, privately funded scholars from Asia outnumbered sponsored students by three to one. Eventually, more Malaysians were studying in overseas tertiary institutions than in Malaysia.

This trend has continued; in 2020, World Education reported Malaysia was the 19th most extensive source of international degree-seeking students.

As the number of international students increased in New Zealand, from 615 in 1962 to 2346 in 1970, unfounded public anxiety grew around students overstaying and becoming permanent residents. In 1976, the government announced a 40 percent quota on private students from any country.

This saw the number of private first-year Malaysian undergraduate students across New Zealand decrease by 75 percent, an ISHI Secretary Report states.

In 1979, education as aid turned to education as trade - with a 750 percent fee hike for international students. The Prime Minister at the time, Robert Muldoon, justified this by insisting private Malaysians had affluent families who could afford the fees.

Meanwhile, those Malaysians continued to battle discriminatory policies back home, the remnants of which are still in place today.

Engineer Nora Chan's family migrated from Kota Kinabalu to Auckland in 1993 so she and her siblings could attend New Zealand universities.

"The only way to have a tertiary education was to move overseas," she said.

When asked why, she said: "We are not Malay, we are Chinese."

She said that even today, it's harder for Chinese students to get accepted into a good university in Malaysia. Her New Zealand degree has helped her get jobs, though. She said when applying to work in Kuala Lumpur, she immediately received offers of higher salaries and more responsibilities.

Number of international students yet to bounce back in NZ

Incoming Asian students are no longer seen as a threat in New Zealand but education remains a trade.

Before Covid-19 in 2019, international students contributed $3.7 billion to New Zealand's GDP. However, the number of students has yet to bounce back, and the contribution dropped to $0.8 million in 2022.

The National government's election campaign promised to attract students back to our shores, but in a seemingly contradictory move, the student visa fees will double on 1 October.

A spokesperson for Education and Immigration Minister Erica Standford said the student visa fees are "still significantly less than Australia's."

They said other incentives such as fast-track visa processing for those students who pay an extra fee are "not on the medium-term work programme," and Cabinet will decide to increase work hours for international students "later in the year."

"Academic matters should be removed from professional bureaucrats," the NZUSA wrote in 1973. Perhaps lessons can be learned from the Colombo Plan students. They were viewed not as a commodity but as a cultural exchange based on learning, encouraging a change in the social attitudes of Aoteaora's previously monocultural society.

"I'm a firm believer that diversity is going to save the world. The more you're diverse, the more you can bring innovation. When you're open to more cultures, you become resilient; you increase your empathy tolerance level. It's not us against them that creates issues," said Auckland University graduate Agskillah Maniam.

"It gives people a reality check because when you're discovering that you're different, you also see all the ways that we are the same."

Changing geography

Moggie believes New Zealand must strengthen its link with Southeast Asia as it's part of our geographical area.

"When I was there in the 60s, the ordinary person would see the United Kingdom as mother country, but not anymore," he said. "They think, yes, our great-grandparents may have come from there, but geographically, we are in this part of the world."

This is increasingly important as New Zealand's ethnic makeup becomes a rich tapestry. Since the 1987 Immigration Act made immigration more accessible for people outside Europe, the most significant number of migrants has been from Asia yearly.

Our international students continue to help foster these cross-cultural interactions, where the exchange goes both ways. Massey University opened a branch in Singapore in April, expanding Kiwi education into Southeast Asia.

It's an innovative move of soft power that fosters cross-cultural exchanges with students from New Zealand being able to study in Singapore and vice versa. Australia's largest university, Monash, was Malaysia's first foreign university campus. New Zealand's influence was building the agricultural faculty at the University of Malaya in 1960 under the Colombo Plan.

Learning about others broadens your perspective

University clubs, like the Otago Malaysian Students Society, also help foster interest in learning about others. Moggie was a member in the 1960s, and the club is still strong today.

International student Aletheia Goh joined as a first year in 2023.

"It was such a great place to get to know people from Malaysia and kind of seamlessly assimilate myself into student life in Dunedin," she said. "It was also a great avenue for meeting many cool people from diverse backgrounds, from all parts of Malaysia and New Zealand."

Her parents are also Otago graduates.

President Sofea Haizal Said the club enhances university life by bringing new ideas to the table. And cuisine - the group shared Malayia's "treasured dish" nasi lemak, with students during the university's international food festival.

"Tak kenal maka tak cinta (you can't love what you don't know)," said Otago graduate Hashim Yaacob.

"If you don't know this person or this country or this situation, then there will be no love for it, and once there is love, there will be peace."

*Samantha Mythen travelled to Malaysia supported by the Asia New Zealand Foundation. This is part four of a series of four.