What it costs, and why we will not quote you
You will find sites that publish a tuition figure for a country. Treat them carefully: tuition is set by each provider, published by that provider, and confirmed in your own offer of place. A number on our page would be a guess wearing a suit.
Three parties, two payments
You pay the provider
Tuition, and any enrolment, materials or insurance fee the provider charges. Directly, into the provider's own account, on the provider's own invoice.
The provider pays us
A commission, once the student is enrolled. This is how education agents are paid, it is normal and lawful in New Zealand, and we would rather you heard it from us than worked it out.
You pay us nothing
There is no placement fee, no consultation fee and no administration fee. We never hold student money. If anyone asks you to pay Vertex for tuition, stop and contact us.
If providers pay us, are we really neutral? It is the right question to ask any agent. Our answer: we will tell you which providers we hold agreements with, we will tell you when a provider is not a good fit even though we have an agreement with them, and we will say when the honest answer is that none of our providers suit the student. You should ask every agency you speak to the same question.
What actually drives the cost
Level
Secondary and university tuition are not in the same range, and postgraduate is different again.
The provider
Two schools in the same city can differ substantially. State, integrated and private are different models.
Length
A year is not twelve times a month. Most fees are annual or per semester, and some are one-off.
What else is included
Uniform, materials, insurance, examination fees, and accommodation if it is arranged through the provider.
Living costs
Set by where and how the student lives, not by the provider, and not something we charge for.
Start earlier than feels necessary
We will not give you a number of weeks, for the same reason we will not give you a tuition figure: intakes, deadlines and how long an application sits with a provider are set by that provider, and we have no agreement to quote from yet. What we can tell you is what the queue is made of, so you can judge it yourself.
- Provider intake dates, which are fixed and not negotiable
- Application deadlines, which are usually well before the intake
- How long the provider takes to assess and make an offer
- Gathering and translating school reports and transcripts
- English language testing, if the provider requires it
- Everything after the offer, which is not ours and which we do not estimate
Vertex Academy is an education placement agency. We help you choose a registered New Zealand school or university, prepare your application to that provider, and stay in touch once you arrive. We are not licensed immigration advisers. We do not give immigration or visa advice, we do not assess whether you qualify for a visa, and we do not prepare or lodge visa applications. Under New Zealand law only a licensed immigration adviser, or a person the law exempts, may advise you on immigration.
Search the register of licensed immigration advisers. Kept by the Immigration Advisers Authority (iaa.govt.nz). For official visa information see Immigration New Zealand at immigration.govt.nz.