To be treated as a domestic student, and so be entitled to the Government tuition subsidy, you must be:
• a citizen of New Zealand (including students from the Cook Islands, Tokelau, or Niue who have New Zealand citizenship) or
• a permanent resident of New Zealand or
• a citizen or permanent resident of Australia residing in New Zealand or
• a citizen of New Zealand (including students from the Cook Islands, Tokelau, or Niue who have New Zealand citizenship).
If you are studying overseas full-time and face-to-face at a campus or delivery site of a New Zealand tertiary education organisation (TEO), you may also qualify as a domestic student if
• you are a permanent resident of New Zealand or a citizen or permanent resident of Australia and
• you are studying in an approved country and
• the overseas study is Level 7 or above on the New Zealand Qualification Framework.
The 29 approved countries are in the Asia, Latin America and Middle East regions. A full list is available on the
Education New Zealand website.
You must provide evidence of citizenship or permanent residency. To do so you must produce one of the following:
▪ Birth certificate with place of birth stated as New Zealand, Cook Islands, Tokelau, or Niue.
▪ New Zealand passport.
▪ A certificate of identity.
▪ A statement of Whakapapa, including date of birth, countersigned by a kaumatua. ▪ A New Zealand certificate of citizenship.
▪ Overseas passport with residency stamp.
You can bring the original documentation to the enrolment desk, alternatively please provide a certified copy. This means a photocopy, photograph or scanned copy of your original document, signed as being a true and accurate copy by a Justice of the Peace (JP), Barrister or Solicitor, Notary Public, Court Register or Deputy Registrar, Member of Parliament, Land Transport New Zealand, Public trust, or local authority employee designated for this purpose. When a learner is in a remote community and unable to access a person listed in the Oaths and Declarations Act, a member of the New Zealand Police, school principal, minister of religion, or general practitioner is acceptable. International students must bring their passport with them when they enrol.
Please note that your name, date of birth and residency as entered on this enrolment form will be included in the National Student Index, and will be used in an Authorised Information Matching programmes with official governement information such as the New Zealand Birth Register, to verify the information provided.
On occasion, more than one National Student Number is created for an individual. The Ministry regularly monitors the quality of the National Student Index and, when duplicates or errors are discovered, it works with providers and government agencies to merge duplicates and correct errors. This may require the documentation you provide at enrolment being shared between agencies authorised to access the National Student Index to make these corrections.
For further information please see:
National Student Number (NSN): for schools – Education in New Zealand
