After two years, Queenstown has finally welcomed back international students.

‘‘It’s great [to have international students back],’’ Queenstown Resort College (QRC) boss Charlie Phillips says.

‘‘It’s not a big part of our college, but actually, it’s an important part, and we’re delighted to see them back.”

A ‘‘few’’ international students, the first ones through since 2020, arrived in early July and are getting stuck into classes, and an additional dozen started the grad uate diploma programme this week.

During the pandemic, QRC also purchased ABC College of English which also saw its first students start last month, and numbers look to reach about 20 or 30 students by the end of this month, Phillips says.

‘‘All these [students] are great, they can add value … when they’re not studying, they can work a certain amount hours a week as well and help fill the worker shortage,’’ Phillips says.

Students have come from South East Asia, India and Europe.

‘‘It’s really nice for our domestic students to have an international element to their classes, I think that is really healthy for the students.

‘‘Just having people from other cultures and other parts of the world, just remind them that the big world out there.’’

Wakatipu High School also welcomed four new international students last week.

[email protected]

- Advertisement -