International student levy
This levy applies to international fee-paying students enrolled at state or state-integrated schools. The levy does not apply to exchange students, or New Zealand Aid programme (NZAID) students.
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It is each board's responsibility to ensure their school's ENROL is accurate because the International student levy uses the database to calculate your allocation.
- Calculating the international student levy
- Collecting the international student levy
- Deducting the levy
- The impact of the Export Education Levy cancellation on the International Student Levy
- Requesting a refund for international student levies
- Receiving the levy invoices
Calculating the international student levy
For each international fee-paying student, we multiply the number of enrolled weeks by a weekly rate to calculate the levy amount. We use data from ENROL to calculate this, so it is important to keep ENROL up to date.
The levy is calculated per trimester, which means your levy amounts are spread over the year.
International student levy rates
The rates for the international student levy are called foreign fee rates. They're published with the operational funding rates.
For more information about funding rates, visit operational funding rates.
Although the levy rates don’t change annually, the levy is occasionally updated as part of a review process. If this occurs schools will be notified in advance.
Example ISL calculation
Below is an example of how the International Student Levy is calculated:
| Primary School Student | Secondary School Student | Calculation notes | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Date enrolled for this Trimester | 31/01/2020 | 31/01/2020 | |
| Date enrolment for this Trimester ended | 14/04/2020 | 14/04/2020 | We use nominal dates based on school being opened for the required number of half days, so the date may not be the exact date the student began or finished the Trimester. This is done as the first and last day of the year varies between schools |
| Number of calendar days enrolled this Trimester | 75 | 75 | |
| Number of holidays days | 18 | 18 | |
| Number of Tuition weeks | 8 | 8 | Rounded to the nearest week |
| Funding fee charged per week | $10.73 | $11.00 | As at 2020 |
| International Student Levy (incl. GST)* | $86 | $88 | Funding fee multiplied by the number of tuition weeks |
*Note in 2020 and 2021 that the Export Education Levy portion of the ISL will be credited back to you. Please see the Export Education Levy Cancellation section below for details
Collecting the international student levy
The levy is debited from your operations grant instalments. At the end of each trimester we email a spreadsheet (RS15) to your school that lists the international fee-paying students and their levy amounts, so your school will know in advance how much will be deducted.
Deducting the levy
Levies are deducted from your operational funding instalments at the following times.
2020 dates
- Trimester 1: 31 January to 30 April – October instalment **
- Trimester 2: 1 May to 31 July – October instalment **
- Trimester 3: 1 August to the end of the school year – January instalment.
** Due to COVID-19 both Trimester 1 and 2 will be deducted from the October instalment.
2021 dates
- Trimester 1: 1 February to 30 April – July instalment
- Trimester 2: 1 May to 31 July – October instalment
- Trimester 3: 1 August to end of the school year – January instalment.
2022 dates
- Trimester 1: 31 January to 30 April – July instalment
- Trimester 2: 1 May to 31 July – October instalment
- Trimester 3: 1 August to end of the school year – January instalment.
The impact of the Export Education Levy cancellation on the International Student Levy
Please visit information on the suspension of the Export Education Levy for schools.
Requesting a refund for international student levies
Because we use the ENROL database to calculate the number of weeks each international student has been enrolled in a trimester, refunds are rarely needed. However, if your school believes a refund is due contact our administrator EEL.Administrator@education.govt.nz
Receiving the levy invoices
The levy invoices are sent to the email address/contact person who is loaded in ENROL. The ENROL contact is used because the levy is calculated from the International Student Data entered into ENROL. All RS15/RS16 invoices are sent to this email. If you would like all correspondence regarding data entered in the ENROL application for all students at your school, that can be updated in ENROL. We don't have a separate point of contact for the international student levy specifically.
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