Bound for Asia

Twenty-nine year old Lauren Borgas, a Bachelor of Arts student at Victoria University of Wellington majoring in Economics and Chinese, is one of 140 New Zealand students to be given the opportunity to undertake study in Asia in the latest round of the Prime Minister’s Scholarships for Asia.

In September Lauren will move to Shanghai to begin her exchange at East China Normal University, one of the oldest and most prestigious universities in China to study the Global Curriculum programme as part of Victoria University’s Study Abroad and student exchange programme.

“I expect my Chinese language skills to improve as well as my knowledge of Chinese consumers through living amongst them. Longer term I view this as an amazing opportunity to form networks with new friends, future colleagues and business partners.

“The university is also close to Fonterra’s headquarters in China. I will be interning there one day per week. This will give me a chance to link what I am learning in the classroom with actual business cases. The tangible benefits of learning the language are already becoming clear. I recently wrote my first email in Chinese,” says Lauren.

Increasing Kiwi students’ cultural awareness and understanding of our Asia-Pacific neighbours will strengthen their global connectedness and deepen New Zealand’s links in the Asia-Pacific region.

Through their Asian study experience students will gain confidence in operating in an international context and obtain knowledge and skills that will help them in their future careers.

Not only will some students make lifelong connections through these study experiences, all of them will be great ambassadors for the quality and strength of New Zealand’s education system.

With one of New Zealand’s greatest challenges in international education being to overcome the lack of awareness of our education offerings, having some of our best and brightest participate in study in Asian markets is another way of raising our profile.

Find out more about the Prime Minister’s Scholarships for Asia(external link), including a full list of recipients.