Business & Money | Wednesday 29 April, 2015 2:42 pm |

New Zealand Prime Minister Rt Hon John Key has launched an online social media competition, offering Saudi students an opportunity to study in New Zealand.

The #whynewzealand competition gives Saudi students a chance to win one of eight full academic scholarships to study in New Zealand for up to four months and includes return flights to New Zealand.

The number of Saudi students choosing to study in New Zealand rose by 17 percent in 2014, with approximately 4,000 Saudi students currently studying in New Zealand. Saudi students are studying towards a wide range of qualifications including engineering, business administration, and information technology and air-traffic control.

“New Zealand’s education system is one of the best in the world, and Saudi Arabia is investing significantly in the future of its education sector and is becoming an increasingly important market for New Zealand export education organisations,” says Mr Key.

The competition is sponsored by eight New Zealand universities and institutes of technology: the University of Auckland, University of Canterbury, Christchurch Polytechnic Institute of Technology, Massey University, Unitech, Waikato Institute of Technology, Wellington Institute of Technology and Otago University.

Flights for the winners will be sponsored by Singapore Airlines.

Students can enter the competition by visiting www.whynz.com and also following Education New Zealand’s recently launched Arabic Facebook https://www.facebook.com/NZeducationSA and Twitter https://twitter.com/nzeducationsa channels.

Saudi citizens do not need a visa when visiting New Zealand for up to 12 weeks.