The University of Otago is targeting community college graduates from the United States as part of a means to boost its roll. Advertising has been rolled out on social media in partnership with the Transfer Abroad Network, an American website that connects US community college transfer students and bachelor's graduates with international universities to complete undergraduate or master's degrees abroad. "Students transferring from US community colleges have already demonstrated success in a tertiary learning environment and are well prepared to transition into degree study at Otago,” a university spokeswoman said. “In common with all our international students, they enrich our campus community through the perspectives, experiences and cultural diversity they bring. "The initiative also supports the university's internationalisation objectives by expanding educational links globally and providing talented students with an accessible pathway to an internationally recognised Otago degree.” The pathway is open to US students who have completed a two-year associate degree at a US community college. To be eligible, students must have a minimum GPA of 2.6 on a 4.0 scale, apply for a degree that aligns with their previous studies, meet Otago’s admission requirements and be eligible to obtain a New Zealand student visa. “As a university consistently ranked among the world's leading institutions, including in the top 200 of the latest QS World University Rankings, the University of Otago offers these students the opportunity to complete a globally recognised degree.” The university did not say how many students they were hoping to recruit from this initiative. Community colleges offer two-year programmes leading to the Associate of Arts (AA) or Associate of Science (AS) degree. These colleges also have technical and vocational programmes. Typically, about 2800 fulltime equivalent students at Otago University are international, of which about 25% come from the United States. The university wants to grow its roll to 24,000 fulltime equivalents by 2030, with 20% international students.
