New Zealand and the Philippines Deepen Their Education Ties
19 August 2026
In signing their first education Memorandum of Cooperation, the two countries are formalising a relationship that has quietly grown for decades, one that already touches more than 108,000 Filipino New Zealanders and a growing share of our international classrooms.
New Zealand has been funding Filipino students to study here since the 1950s, but this year's Manaaki Scholarship intake includes something new: for the first time, recipients come from several of the Philippines' indigenous communities in Mindanao, alongside 15 scholars from Bangsamoro, the country's youngest autonomous region and home to its Muslim-minority population. It is a small detail in a much larger story, but it captures something important about what New Zealand and the Philippines are trying to build together, a partnership measured not only in enrolment figures, but in who gets to walk through the door.
That door opened a little wider with the signing of the first Memorandum of Cooperation in Education between the two governments, a milestone reached during a visit to Manila by Foreign Affairs Minister Rt. Hon. Winston Peters, as New Zealand and the Philippines mark 60 years of diplomatic relations. The agreement formalises what had, until now, been a relationship built mostly on goodwill, individual partnerships, and steadily rising numbers, giving it, for the first time, a shared framework spanning early childhood education through to universities and technical-vocational training.
“This Memorandum is an important step forward in our education partnership,” said Sahinde Pala, Education New Zealand's Group General Manager for International and Sector Engagement. “It builds on years of collaboration between our governments, education agencies and institutions, and provides a framework to deepen that cooperation for years to come.”
Prior to the signing of the MoU between the Philippines and New Zealand, New Zealand Foreign Minister Rt Hon Winston Peters spoke at an Education New Zealand presentation for the Philippine media.
Why It Matters for New Zealand
The Philippines has quietly become one of New Zealand's most important education partners in Southeast Asia. Enrolments have grown 36 percent since 2023 to reach 2,635 students in 2025, making it our ninth-largest international student market. Filipino students are choosing New Zealand largely for business and management, human welfare studies, agriculture, IT and nursing, fields that line up closely with our own skills-shortage list and post-study work pathways, meaning many go on to fill roles New Zealand employers are actively trying to recruit for.
That pipeline sits alongside a much larger demographic shift here at home. New Zealand's Filipino community has grown roughly tenfold since 2001, from around 10,000 people to more than 108,000 at the 2023 census, now one of our largest Asian communities. Every returning scholar, every graduate who stays on to work, and every family that relocates for a child's studies adds another thread to that connection, one that increasingly shapes workplaces, churches and neighbourhoods from Auckland to smaller regional towns.
What the Memorandum Actually Does
On paper, the Memorandum formalises cooperation between New Zealand's Ministry of Education, Education New Zealand Manapou ki te Ao, and the New Zealand Qualifications Authority on one side, and the Philippines' Department of Education, Commission on Higher Education, and Technical Education and Skills Development Authority on the other. Officials describe it as a long-term platform rather than a single initiative, one meant to encourage greater mobility for students, educators and researchers; strengthen institutional partnerships around joint research and innovation; and share expertise on qualifications recognition, quality assurance, and workforce development.
Education New Zealand will lead a delegation of 16 New Zealand education providers to the “Study with New Zealand Study Expos” in Cebu on September 19, 2026, and Iloilo on September 22, 2026.
Some of that groundwork was already underway before the ink dried. A joint project between the Commission on Higher Education and the New Zealand Qualifications Authority, completed in 2024, compared how bachelor's degrees are structured and recognised in both countries, unglamorous, technical work that nonetheless determines something as practical as whether a New Zealand employer can be confident a Filipino graduate's qualification stacks up, or whether a Kiwi credential is recognised the other way. Philippine delegations visited New Zealand in 2025 to build on that foundation, meeting with ministers and senior officials here.
“Today's signing is a significant milestone,” Pala said. “It also formalises the excellent collaboration that has been developing over many years between our governments, education agencies and, in fact, our institutions.”
The New Zealand Pitch
Ask New Zealand education officials what actually distinguishes our system, and the answer rarely starts with rankings, though they have those too, fifth in the world for education quality on the QS index, alongside strong marks for peace, transparency and work-life balance. It starts instead with pastoral care. New Zealand was the first country to adopt a formal Code of Practice for the welfare of international students, introduced in 2002 and updated in 2021, requiring institutions to take systematic responsibility for student wellbeing and safety, not just academic delivery.
That philosophy extends into the classroom, where New Zealand's inquiry-based teaching style can be a real adjustment for students used to more traditional, lecture-heavy models. “The number one thing is confidence,” one Education New Zealand official said at a media briefing in Manila. “We encourage students to question something, to participate, to really challenge the thinking, so much of the learning comes from the debate and the conversation and the disagreement, or the trial and error.” Returning scholars often say re-entering the Philippine system afterwards is harder than the original move to New Zealand was, several have gone on to bring the same participatory style into their own classrooms as academics back home.
New Zealand's settings for international students also lean toward keeping families together, partners and dependent children of eligible students, including doctoral candidates, can accompany them, with some entitled to work rights or access to state schooling as domestic students. It is a recognition, officials say, that choosing to study abroad is rarely an individual decision so much as a family one, and it is increasingly part of how New Zealand positions itself against competing destinations like Australia, the UK and Canada.
(L-R): Sahinde Pala, Education New Zealand's Group General Manager for International and Sector Engagement, New Zealand Ambassador to the Philippines H.E. Dr Catherine McIntosh, and Dylan Mabunga - New Zealand International Development Cooperation Manager.
A Longer History, and What Scholars Give Back
The scholarship relationship itself is older than the current branding suggests. New Zealand has funded Filipino scholars since the 1950s, first under earlier development programmes such as NZAID before the government consolidated its offering under the Manaaki name. Officials estimate total alumni in the thousands across those decades, though exact figures are hard to pin down. Under the current Manaaki brand specifically, 335 Filipinos have received scholarships since 2014, the more precise, trackable slice of a much longer relationship.
For the 44 Manaaki scholars funded by New Zealand each year, the arrangement comes with a condition: two years of return service in the Philippines after graduation. It is a deliberate design choice, New Zealand isn't just training workers for its own economy, but investing in skills that scholars carry home, whether that's disaster resilience expertise for flood-prone regions or governance experience for underserved communities. Officials describe it as part of New Zealand's wider soft-power presence in the region, alongside its APEC and ASEAN-linked education initiatives.
The Next Chapter
New Zealand's pitch to Filipino students leans on a broader argument than employability alone: that its education system builds what officials call “mindset” alongside credentials, adaptability, resourcefulness and resilience for an uncertain labour market. It's a message New Zealand intends to push harder following the Memorandum's signing, with a new international brand platform in the works and a wider rollout of the International Education Going for Growth strategy, which aims to make New Zealand a destination of choice as competition for international students intensifies globally.
The next visible step comes in September, when a delegation of sixteen New Zealand education providers, universities, polytechnics and private training institutions, heads to the Philippines for Study Expos in Cebu on September 19 and Iloilo on September 22. Both cities were chosen because they already send growing numbers of students to New Zealand, and the events will give Filipino students and families the chance to meet providers directly, ask questions, and explore study options outside Manila.
-Asia Media Centre
Carla Teng-Westergaard
Media Adviser
Carla Teng-Westergaard is a media adviser at the Asia Media Centre in Auckland. She previously worked as an international affairs correspondent for TV5 Network and Bloomberg TV-Philippines, and served as chief editor at the Office of the President of the Philippines. She was also an accredited Vatican reporter.
See Full bio