International Student Perspective

We at Maverick Group are always looking for ways to attract more and more people from the outside world to come to Dunedin to study, work and live. Last Friday we had a small brainstorming activity with 5 international students, all from the University of Otago. We had students from Hong Kong, Malaysia, Peru, Singapore and Vietnam some of whom had been here for more than 6 years and 1 for less than 6 months. We talked about security and safety issues, and whether the situation had gotten better or worse since each arrived. The conclusion being that while the chance of physical violence was low for students, the social settings, especially for international female students, did indeed provide some areas of concern - particularly around the consumption of alcohol.

All students liked the fact that the town was small and easy to get around (most places in only 10 minutes), and very much quieter than most of the places the students originated from - but this was seen as a good thing for study, as there were less distractions to interfere with school. The University of Otago itself came out positively, as the opportunities to study pharmacy and dentistry were open and accessible to international students, they are somewhat limited in other Universities in New Zealand, as well as in their home countries. There is room for improvement in student support at most of the local high schools, as well as the University itself, but we took this to mean that there are opportunities for Maverick Group and its team to assist these organizations to improve such services. Mostly by a "hands on" approach with all of our brainstorming team committed to the task, especially with the support of international high school kids.

This was our first of hopefully many meetings as a group, and I will keep you updated on our progress as we proceed. I will also enlighten you about another recent brainstorming session with a group of business students (50/50 mix of local kiwis and newcomers) about the future of Dunedin from a business perspective.

So Why Dunedin

Dunedin (NZ) is the place my wife (China) and myself (Irish/American) chose to establish roots and settle down and raise our family, a daughter (born in Scotland) and son (born in China). As you can see, none of us have any links or ties to NZ, yet we felt it to be a safe and clean country to make a new life for all of us. For my wife and I, it was a "neutral 3rd country" in which we were both on equal footing to learn a new way of life and culture, after living in each others country for a period of time. For the children it is safe (they can walk home from school - barefoot if they want), an outdoor lifestyle with beaches 3 minutes away and teachers who take an active interest in what they are learning in school. From our house we can see the harbor from the back yard and ocean from the front, with plenty of trees and grass in between both views.

From a business point of view, Dunedin has just over 100,000 residents with another 20,000 students at the University of Otago and Otago Polytech during the school term. With this size population, it is small enough for a business (even a new business) to "effect change" from a marketing perspective (word of mouth is king), yet large enough that this same business can earn enough money so the owners can live comfortably. I strongly believe this, as I have taught and graduated over 200 business students from a small business management class, a majority who are new migrants, many of whom have set up their own businesses here in Dunedin.