Catherine Guo1
1Victoria University of Wellington, , New Zealand
Provider Direct of Students (PDS) is an online Immigration New Zealand service that allows education providers to process student visa renewals on campus in New Zealand. Victoria University of Wellington is one of this programme’s partners. This presentation will cover three aspects.
Firstly, it will provide an overview of the programme’s mechanism and its requirements for the university and international students. How the university allocates its resource to operate the programme will also be covered, as well as, the detailed conditions for international students to use the PDS service.
Secondly, to apply for a new student visa using PDS, students normally need to ensure that they have met its requirements – we refer to this as the “confirmation process”. During the confirmation process, three important elements will be determined, namely, academic progress, financial requirement and full-time study status. Each of these conditions will be discussed in detail, and how pastoral care is provided by the university during this process.
Thirdly, this presentation will determine the importance of the pastoral care in the PDS programme operation, and further conclude that the both PDS and the pastoral care are playing important roles in enhancing student experience in international education in Victoria University of Wellington, and in New Zealand