New Zealand scholarships for Vietnamese students

Education New Zealand (ENZ) held a ceremony in Ho Chi Minh City to award government scholarships to 16 Vietnamese students for the 2026 academic year. The recipients include five undergraduate students under the New Zealand Universities Awards (NZUA) program and 11 high school students under the New Zealand Schools Scholarships (NZSS) program.

Undergraduate recipients Nguyen Minh Khoi and Nguyen Hoang Lam each secured combined scholarship values of approximately NZ$65,000, marking the first time the NZUA program has reached this total per recipient through combined university and government funding. Khoi intends to study biotechnology to assist farmers, while Lam plans to study Finance and Business Analytics to focus on sustainable business models.

The undergraduate scholars will attend the University of Auckland, the University of Waikato, and the University of Otago, while high school recipients will attend various institutions including Pukekohe High School, Green Bay High School, Long Bay College, and Nayland College.

Looking toward 2027, the New Zealand government is investing up to NZ$2.5 million to support secondary schools in recruiting and caring for international students. Vietnam has been identified as a key target market for this expansion. For the 2027 secondary school scholarship program, 56 participating schools are offering scholarships that cover 50 percent of the first year’s tuition specifically for Vietnamese students. Additionally, several universities are offering tertiary-level awards, including the University of Otago, which provides combined undergraduate awards of up to NZ$50,000, and the University of Auckland, which offers foundation-program scholarships up to NZ$20,000.