#WhyNewZealand Scholarship Winners Announced

New Zealand Ambassador, HE Hamish MacMaster has announced the Saudi scholarship winners to travel to New Zealand as part of a Government social media competition to encourage Saudi students to study in New Zealand.

The eight winners of the #WhyNewZealand competition will receive full academic scholarships to study in New Zealand for up to four months, including return flights to New Zealand sponsored by Singapore Airlines.

“The #WhyNewZealand Competition was a great success, with more than 2,400 entrants promoting New Zealand on our dedicated Arabic-language Twitter and Facebook channels – @nzeducationsa. We now have more than 21,000 followers on our Twitter page, where students can find out how great it is to study in New Zealand,” says Mr. MacMaster.

The #WhyNewZealand competition signals a renewed commitment by the New Zealand Government to promote education links with Saudi Arabia. More than 3,500 students travel to study at New Zealand’s world-class Universities and institutions each year. Saudi students are studying towards a wide range of qualifications including engineering, business administration, and information technology and air-traffic control.

“I congratulate the winners of this competition and encourage them to make the most of this great opportunity. I also encourage all Saudi students to visit our Twitter and Facebook pages to find out more about why New Zealand is one of the best places to study in the world,” says Mr. McMaster.

The competition winners to study at New Zealand Universities and Institutes of Technology are: Mazen Al Najmi (Christchurch Polytechnic Institute of Technology), Saber Shafi Aldosari (Massey University), Abdullah Alnumairi (Unitec), Abdulmajeed Bajaber (Waikato Institute of Technology), Budoor Almutham (Wellington Institute of Technology), Mohammed Rassam Alsubaie (University of Canterbury), Naif Hussein Alenezi (University of Auckland), and Saleh Mohammd Alharbi (Otago University).

Saudi citizens do not need a visa when visiting New Zealand for up to 12 weeks.