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Overseas student exchange programmes have been hard hit by the Covid-19 travel restrictions with some organisations describing their programmes as being in a holding pattern for the foreseeable future.
New Zealand sends and receives hundreds of exchange students, aged 14 to 18 years, every year. Some stays are for just a few weeks, but the majority are for six to 12 months. They are aimed at giving students the opportunity to experience other cultures, meet new friends and develop a global perspective.
With international borders closed, these exchanges have ground to a halt.
Shirley Webb-Speight, who is the interim national director of AFS Intercultural Programmes New Zealand, which will celebrate its 75th anniversary this year, says NZ will be one of the last countries to re-open its border to international exchange students.
“The current unavailability of visas and uncertainty around timing makes comprehensive forward planning rather challenging,” she says.
AFS NZ continued to send a small number of students last year and will continue to do this this year. However, due to the restrictions at New Zealand’s border, it is unable to host students from abroad.
“We are optimistic that current border restrictions will lift in the second half of this year, which will enable us to begin hosting students from abroad again. However, there remains a real possibility that this does not materialise until next year.”
Ms Webb-Speight says that while numbers fluctuate from year to year, AFS NZ typically hosts several hundred students from abroad in a given year. A similar number of NZ students typically participate in its sending programmes.
“Covid has had an enormous impact, which has been most keenly felt with our hosting programmes. While the overall health risk to young adults is low, we take our duty of care extremely seriously and have, therefore, limited the range of countries that we send NZ students to.
“Where we have begun sending, we do so with strict protocols in place for our students’ protection including thorough risk assessments on overseas host countries, vaccination requirements, and comprehensive medical insurance for all our participants.”
Ms Webb-Speight says the current restrictions are largely NZ driven.
“We have had a few countries unable to host such as Japan and China, but as time has gone by, most countries have started hosting AFS students again.
“While the current situation is both incredibly sad and frustrating, we are excited by the opportunities that lie ahead. Our work with the global AFS community during the past year has reaffirmed our strong belief in the value of intercultural learning and exchange programmes. Students in NZ and around the globe increasingly want to develop a global mindset and their desire for a just and peaceful world is as relevant as ever.”
YFU Student Exchange national director Natrisha Finch says the exchange industry came to a screaming holt in March 2020 when the first lockdown was announced.
“Once the repatriation of all our students was completed, we have been in somewhat of a holding pattern neither receiving nor sending students,” Ms Finch says.
“This holding pattern saw all except the national director lose their role within the organisation, and the national director working only part-time as part of the cost-cutting to keep YFU Student Exchange alive throughout the pandemic.
“Until the Government opens the international borders and grants students the ability to obtain a visa, we are unable to operate inbound programmes.”
YFU is working towards sending New Zealand students on exchange from August this year, but this is totally dependent on the actions of the Government.
“Globally, most YFU organisations have been facilitating exchange programmes since early last year, New Zealand being one of the very few unable to operate due to Covid-19 and international border closures.”
