#indian accountants in tauranga

[indiapages]

Indian Community In Tauranga

Indiapages is a premium directory of various kinds of Indian local businesses, institutes and programmes all over New Zealand. The directory presents you a full range of Services and products Indian businesses offer all over New Zealand. We also list the latest deals and offers offered by local Indian businesses. Our directory is designed in a simplest way so that everybody finds it easy to navigate.

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[vatslyaedu-blog]

Why are so many Indian students coming to New Zealand?

The international student market is huge money-maker for our economy. It’s already New Zealand’s fifth largest export category worth close to $3 billion and it's only getting more lucrative. Last year, the money from tuition fees alone topped $1 billion for the first time.

While most of the international students in New Zealand have traditionally been from China, over the last few years, Indian students have rapidly grown in number. There are now more Indian students in the non-university tertiary sector than any other group.

There were more than 29,000 Indian students enrolled to study here in 2015; that’s a 150 percent increase since 2010.

More students mean more money pumped into our economy andTertiary Education Minister, Steven Joyce, says benefits of international education extend well beyond their economic contribution.“Young New Zealanders live and learn alongside people from other countries, increasing their understanding of other cultures and boosting our links with the world. These links are vital for us to prosper in an increasingly Asia-Pacific world,” he says.

The bad news is, it’s not exactly going to plan. Over the last few years, more and more accounts of cheating, immigration fraud, shoddy agents, exploitation of workers and low-quality education providers have emerged. However, much of it happens behind the scenes or even before the students land on New Zealand soil.

Earlier this year, The Wireless travelled to India to find out what’s behind the rapid growth. Here’s what we know:

#1: A very bad decision

The reality is, New Zealand isn’t a first choice study destination for most Indian Students. Countries like the US, UK, Canada and Australia are usually on the top of their wish list. But when the New Zealand Qualification Authority (NZQA) decided to change the rules, the country experienced an unprecedented surge in Indian students wanting to study here - what started as a wave quickly became a tsunami.

It began in 2013 when NZQA, with the approval of Tertiary Education Minister Steven Joyce, drastically altered the English language requirements for Indian students.In a nutshell, some Private Training Establishments (PTEs) could enrol students into their programmes without having to prove they could speak English through the standard channels - they could use their own tests and criteria instead.

PTEs are privately owned tertiary education providers. They are registered by NZQA and must be signatories of a special code to enrol international students.

While in India, The Wireless spoke to Navneet Singh, co-founder of GoGlobal education consultancy, in the North of the country.

Photo: Julian Vares/The Wireless

Navneet sends hundreds of students to New Zealand every year and says while the intent of the policy change wasn’t bad, the results had hugely negative impacts for New Zealand.

“Before anybody could understand what happened, it went haywire.

“The primary responsibility [for English testing] was given to the PTEs…and who made the biggest money? The PTEs.”

The rule change led to a sharp increase in fraudulent activity, both by those in India and PTEs in New Zealand looking to make cash off easy-to-exploit entry requirements.

The number of international students from India surged from about 12,000 to more than 20,000 between 2013 and 2014.

Then the surge became a flood.  At the end of October last year, Immigration NZ already received 11 percent more student visa applications than in the whole of 2014, most of which were being declined.

In a high priority report to the Steven Joyce released to under the Official Information Act, NZQA stated that some education agents in India were actively promoting New Zealand as a destination for its ease of entry. It also noted that, in some cases, these agents in India where given the authority to enrol students on the PTEs behalf.

“These [education] providers appear to have no visibility or control over how many offers of place are issues, or to whom. Some of this “outsourcing” is of poor quality.”

Licensed Immigration Adviser Munish Sekhri says he saw, first-hand, what was going on.

“I personally was approached by many PTEs who said ‘hey look, we’ll give you the login details for our English testing portal so you or your staff can sit [the test] on behalf of the students and we’ll offer an admission letter instantly.”

Indian students also suffered. Many with low language skills become susceptible to exploitation in the New Zealand workforce, with some only managing to get jobs paying as little as $4 an hour.

Noticing the damage, NZQA tried to back-track.

They re-introduced rules in late 2015 which meant education providers couldn't use their own English assessments for students coming from India but many say the damage was already done.

#2: Rogue Agents

The majority of students coming from India are from the North – a region most Kiwis will recognise through their taste buds with dishes like tandoori chicken, korma and naan.

Walking along the streets of Chandigarh in North India, the number of signs and banners advertising education abroad is staggering. They line the shop fronts with promises of “easy visas”, “instant approval”, and “residency”, vying for the attention of potential students.

Photo: Julian Vares/The Wireless

Most young Indians organise their trips through education agents. These agents give advice on where to study, help organise visa applications, and facilitate English testing. However, there are few rules and regulations that govern who can be an agent, what they can say, or how much they can get paid.

Late last year, a Facebook group was set up to support students in New Zealand – Agents Trapped International Students – which has 330 members. One member wrote: “I was told that business program has lot of demand and great jobs are available in Auckland. I have done graduation in business hence I thought it will be great decision to go ahead. But when I landed here I saw every third person doing this degree.”

Agents giving misinformation to potential students, as well charging high fees and falsifying documents is a growing problem.

LISTEN: Insight looks into the growing issue of dodgy visa applications from India.

Immigration lawyer Alistair McClymont says agents also tell students it’s easy to get jobs in New Zealand – a big draw card for those wanting to get residency after their study.

“If you look at any of the marketing that the agents do in India, it's not about the quality of the qualification; it's about the benefits that a student will get if they complete a New Zealand qualification. And that's not in terms of the skills they get...it's about what Immigration NZ will offer them after they graduate.”

Agents are paid commission to send students to particular education providers. Universities give a flat rate of about 10 percent commission, while Institutes of Technology and Polytechnics give up to 30. Reports out of India suggest agents are offered up to 50 percent commission to send students to PTEs, making them more appealing to send students to, even if the quality of education is low.

Out of the 29,235 Indian students in New Zealand last year, more than 21,000 of them attended PTEs. Navneet from GoGlobal in India says shoddy agents can say anything to attract students.

“There are ads in newspapers which say ‘go through us, we’ll give you free air ticket, we’ll give you a laptop.’ When such lucrative ads are there, you can understand what is happening.”

Photo: Julian Vares/The Wireless

Recently the NZ Herald reported that out of the 10,863 declined applications Immigration received from Indian in ten months, 85 percent had been lodged by unlicensed education advisers, student agents and lawyers who are exempt from licensing.

Regulating agents in India is no simple task. While there are about 33 licensed immigration advisors in India, according to Munish Shekhri, there are thousands of others working with students and getting commission from New Zealand companies. But he says the blame can’t solely to put on the agents or even the places offering them commission - the students need to take responsibility, too.

“The big onus is on the student...they have to understand they cannot come to New Zealand and corrupt the country.”

#3: Cheap as chips

Te Puke – a quiet town outside of Tauranga with a population of about 8,000 - is best known for its kiwifruit. It backpackers and camping grounds are full of seasonal workers from the Pacific Islands, plus the odd travellers hoping to make some cash picking in the orchards.

Te Puke is also the home of Royal Business College, self-described as one of the “largest and most respected colleges in New Zealand”.

With four campuses across New Zealand, its Te Puke campus was the most intriguing. The Wireless headed there last month and found there wasn’t much to see.

The Royal Business College campus is located in an industrial block, with a train track a couple hundred metres from its front door. The outside is unassuming with a couple broken chairs and narrow door.

Photo: Mava Enoka

At lunch time, a stream of young Indian boys came out of the building. Surprisingly, there are no other ethnicities and very few women. Some get into their cars and drive to the local McDonalds while others hang around the parking lot. One student says he was paying $12,000 for a business course in Wellington but moved to Te Puke when he was offered his second year for just $7,000. He said it was a cheaper place to live and easier to find a job.

All the students we spoke to worked on Kiwifruit orchards.

While the website says the campus “provides the ideal learning environment for our Diploma courses in Horticulture,” staff at Royal Business College say they are currently only offering business courses in Te Puke. They wouldn’t let us inside but encouraged us to call the owner, Jimmy Royal. He did not return our requests to talk.

Photo: Mava Moayyed

The attraction of PTEs is clear: At universities, international students can expect to pay about three times more than domestic students. In India Renjith Narayan, 21, forked out $72,000 for an 18 month masters course at the University of Auckland. It’s no surprise, then, that many hunt for cheaper alternatives.

In New Zealand, PTEs offer courses in almost everything. A course can cost a smidgen of the price of a university degree. There are over 500 PTEs in New Zealand but only about 250 of them are licensed to enrol international students and most of them in central Auckland.

At lunch time, Queen Street starts to resemble the malls in India. Hundreds of young Indians, mostly boys, gather in groups outside their PTEs dressed in distinctly western fashion. Many order fast food and drag on cigarettes. According to information released under the Official Information Act, about 50 education providers have a visa decline rate over 30 percent. This includes popular PTEs like National Technology Institute, Royal Business, and Newton College of Business & Technology.

[robertmcangusgroup]

The Daily Tulip

The Daily Tulip – International News From Around The World

Friday 31st March 2017

Good Morning Gentle Reader….  The last day of March has given us a beautiful morning with a heaven filled with Stars and other planetary bodies, all seemingly competing to get my attention…. Today Bella sniffed her way down the small side streets that make up Estepona, past the shoe repair shop, and onward past the small bakery.. and the bread being baked smelt so good!.. then past the shop that sells everything and only closes for two hours in 24.. they were cooking Sweet Potatoes and delicious doesn’t cover how good they smelt. Down past where the local council night crew were watering the multitude of Geraniums hanging on the walls  of the narrow alleys.. then up past the church, with the old women waiting for the doors to be unlocked and the bells to ring calling them to pray.. and then she turned for home, she imagining the smell of her dog food and me the smell of my fresh brewed Colombian coffee….

NEW ZEALAND AND FIJI TURN AWAY 'DIRTY' SHIP OVER BARNACLES…. New Zealand has ordered a cargo ship to leave its waters and be "thoroughly cleaned" because of concerns about the marine life clinging to its hull. Divers found dense clusters of barnacles and tube worms on the DL Marigold, which arrived in Tauranga from Indonesia at the weekend, the Bay of Plenty Times reports. The Ministry of Primary Industries (MPI) then gave the ship 24 hours to depart. It is the first vessel to be told to leave New Zealand because of biofouling - the accumulation of aquatic organisms on ships' hulls. "The longer the vessel stayed in New Zealand, the greater chance there was for unwanted marine species to spawn or break away from the ship. So we had to act quickly," says Steve Gilbert, border clearance director at the MPI. Mr Gilbert describes it as a "severe contamination" and says the DL Marigold won't be allowed to return and unload its shipment until it has had a good clean. New Zealand has strict biosecurity laws at its border in order to protect agriculture and its unique flora and fauna. Next year, tighter rules will be implemented to protect its marine environment against biofouling, with instructions on how clean ships' hulls must be before arriving in the country. The vessel then went on to Fiji, more than 2,000km (1,300 miles) away, but the authorities there have said they will also not allow it to dock. The Biosecurity Authority of Fiji (BAF) said the marine species carried on the hull could be devastating for Fiji's environment.

RUSSIAN 'FLOWER RENTALS' FOR INTERNATIONAL WOMEN'S DAY…. Russians who want to impress their social media followers can now rent huge bouquets of flowers for just long enough to snap an Instagram-worthy photo, it's reported. Pop-up services are advertising on social networks in preparation for International Women's Day on 8 March, a public holiday in Russia when women are traditionally feted with flowers and other gifts. They're offering 10 minutes with an enormous bouquet - enough time to perfect the best angle and pose - before the courier takes it back, the TJournal news website reports. One account is offering women a fleeting visit from 101 roses for 700 roubles ($12; £10). Posting selfies with huge bouquets seemingly sent by a boyfriend or secret admirer has been a trend among Russian Instagram and VKontakte social network users for some time. The 360 TV website contacted the owner of one flower-rental Instagram account, who insisted his service was real and had received many requests. He says the 10 minutes can be extended a little, but not indefinitely. "The most important thing to avoid is: 'I'm going to put some make up on and tidy up' and all that'," he says. Another account that 360 TV contacted turned out to be a joke set up to mock the new trend, and there was plenty of ridicule from Russians commenting online. "The secret of a mysterious bunch of flowers from a stranger has been EXPOSED," writes one person on Twitter. "This is the quintessence of modern values", says an Instagram user, who suggests a similar service aimed at men: "A Rolex watch, two iPhones on the table and a selfie taken in a Moscow office with a panoramic view."

EGYPT AD CAMPAIGN BACKFIRES OVER 'SPINSTER' BILLBOARDS…. An Egyptian company's attempt to tackle gender stereotypes has backfired after its latest advertising campaign was accused of reinforcing negative attitudes towards women. "Are you a spinster?!" reads one billboard promoting Sunny cooking oil, alongside a picture of a young woman looking down in resignation while several fingers point at her from the back. Other billboards in the campaign use Egyptian proverbs, including one that says: "Break a girl's rib and she will grow 24 more." In a much smaller font, the adverts encourage women to share their opinions on the stereotypes through the company's Facebook page. The marketing agency behind it told Egypt's Dream TV that the idea was to create new, positive slogans inspired by women's own stories. But the campaign's approach was swiftly criticised. "These are the kind of phrases we want to erase from our dictionary," said TV anchor Lamis al-Hadidi, adding that the wording was unacceptable even as a shock tactic to draw attention to a positive message. There was a similar reaction on social media, where many users felt the billboards would simply reinforce sexist ideas. The head of the Egyptian Centre for Women's Rights said the company should have sought expert advice on how to convey its message. "Social change has specific mechanisms," Nihad Abo al-Qomsan told Dream TV. "You cannot change a mental image by spreading it on billboards." Egypt's Consumer Protection Agency has now intervened on legal grounds and the billboards are in the process of being removed, according to the Mada Masr news website. Agency head Atef Yacoub said the adverts violated the law on inciting hatred against women and were "completely demeaning and offensive".

JORDANIANS DECRY JOURNALIST FOR HUNTING HYENA CUBS…. A journalist has created an outcry among conservationists and animal lovers in Jordan with a video of herself hunting hyena cubs. Hayam Awad's video has been viewed tens of thousands of times on Facebook and YouTube. In it, she crawls out of a den with two striped hyena cubs that are tied up, saying that she would remove them from the area to prevent cattle from being attacked by predators. Some commentators praise her courage, calling her a brave woman and "a sister of men". But many have been angered by it. Hundreds of commentators on social media condemned the act and urged the authorities to take action, the Jordan Times website reports. "Look at the extent of what people can do to gain fame and phony boasting. Leave nature alone. We have destroyed it with our ignorance," said one Twitter user. The country's Royal Society for the Conservation of Nature said Ms Awad appeared to have infringed several laws on animal protection and expected to take action against her. Striped hyenas are listed as "near threatened" by the International Union for Conservation of Nature, and are most at risk from persecution by people because of superstition or their perceived threat to farmers. Their body parts are also sometimes used in traditional medicine.

KUWAIT CRACKS DOWN ON STATE EMPLOYEES FAKING WORK…. Kuwait is to prosecute 38 state employees for bunking off work and having their colleagues use silicone fingertips to fake their presence on a biometric attendance system. The system also requires employees to have their faces photographed - something their colleagues avoided - and the lack of pictures triggered an investigation into the issue, the Gulf News website reports. The Kuwaiti government employs about a fifth of the working population in the Gulf state and a vast majority of Kuwaitis prefer to work for the state, rather than in the private sector, which is manned mainly by non-Kuwaitis. But the government has also been trying to reform work in the state sector, where ghost employees and absenteeism have been big issues. An official report in 2011 found only half of all state employees were showing up at work. As part of a crackdown last year, the government stopped the salaries of 900 employees over absenteeism. In one case, an employee had been receiving a salary despite not showing up for work for more than 10 years. Another had been abroad for 18 months without giving their employer any explanation or reason. Not quite the record set by an Indian teacher who was finally sacked after 23 years of absence, but it looks like the Kuwaiti government still has some way to go in getting its staff to pull their fingers out.

Well Gentle Reader I hope you enjoyed our look at the news from around the world this, Friday morning…

Our Tulips today are fit to grace the screen on your computer....

A Sincere Thank You for your company and Thank You for your likes and comments I love them and always try to reply, so please keep them coming, it's always good fun, As is my custom, I will go and get myself another mug of "Colombian" Coffee and wish you a safe Friday 31st March 2017 from my home on the southern coast of Spain, where the blue waters of the Alboran Sea washes the coast of Africa and Europe and the smell of the night blooming jasmine and Honeysuckle fills the air…and a crazy old guy and his dog Bella go out for a walk at 4:00 am…on the streets of Estepona…

All good stuff....But remember it’s a dangerous world we live in ….. Be safe out there…

Robert McAngus