Awards Guidelines

Categories 1-5 are open to international students currently studying in the Wellington region. Award category 6 is open to international students who are enrolled in a Wellington institution and are currently studying online.

International student applicants must hold current overseas citizenship and not be a citizen or permanent resident of New Zealand or Australia. Applicants must have studied at an educational institution in the Wellington region for four months or more of the 2021 academic year. Applicants should have a valid Study Visa for New Zealand (except the online awards category). Applicants will be asked to provide proof of enrolment at a Wellington institution.

Former recipients of a Wellington International Student Excellence Award are not eligible to apply under any of these award categories.

Award category 7 is open to domestic students currently studying in the Wellington region. Applicants should be citizens or permanent residents of New Zealand or Australia. Applicants must have studied at an educational institution in the Wellington region for four months or more of the 2021 academic year. Former recipients of a Wellington International Student Excellence Award are not eligible to apply under this award category.

Award category 8 is open to international student graduates who have previously studied in the Wellington region.

Alumni applicants must have studied at an educational institution in the Wellington region for more than four months. Applicants must have held overseas citizenship (not citizens or permanent residents of New Zealand or Australia) during their period of study in Wellington. Applicants will be asked to provide proof of enrolment at a Wellington institution.

Former recipients of a Wellington International Student Excellence Award in any of the international student categories are eligible to apply under the Alumni category. Former Alumni award recipients are not eligible to apply again.

The workplace award is open to all organisations with teams in the Wellington region. Nominees can be a single employee, such as a people and culture manager of a team with international graduates, or the organisation as a whole. The organisation must employ international students or graduates in a paid position (full or part-time), or in an internship position, or in a volunteer capacity.

Former workplace award winners are not eligible to apply under this award category again.

For students and alumni, if you are applying for yourself, you will need to nominate a referee in the application form.

We will contact your referee to verify the information that you have provided in the application form, therefore please select a referee who can comment directly on your achievements. If they are unable to provide a reference for you, your application may not be considered further.

It is good practice to check that your referee is happy to provide a reference before you enter their details.

If you are nominating a student, we will contact the student to verify that they accept the nomination. The student will be invited to review the nomination and provide additional comments about their achievements.

If you are nominating a workplace that is not your own, or if you are providing a workplace contact that is not yourself, we will contact the workplace contact to verify that they accept the nomination. The workplace contact will be invited to review the nomination and provide additional comments.

If you are nominating an alumni, we will contact the alumni to verify that they accept the nomination. The alumni will be invited to review the nomination and provide additional comments about their achievements.

You may upload up to three files. Instructions are provided in the application form.

Uploaded files should be evidence only. Reference letters and recommendations will not be considered.

Preferred file type is PDF or JPEG. Please keep file sizes small (ideally below 5MB) and limit the number of pages. Do feel free to combine your three files into a single PDF document (ideally below 15MB). Other file types, larger files, and long documents may be ignored.

If you are shortlisted for the alumni category, we will request proof of your previous enrolment at a Wellington institution.

If it’s a workplace that is shortlisted, we will request a high-resolution photograph of yourself (for individuals) or the organisation logo (for organisations which have been nominated).

For international students award category nominees, if you are shortlisted, we will request a copy of your current and valid Study Visa for New Zealand (except for the online awards category), and a high-resolution photograph of yourself.

The successful award recipients will be chosen by a judging panel organised by WellingtonNZ, which will include at least one representative from Education Wellington International, Education New Zealand, and WellingtonNZ, or their nominees. The judges reserve the right to verify the content provided in any of the applications received. The judging panel reserves the right to not award the full complement of awards, if it is determined that the criteria have not been fully met. The judges' decision is final, and no correspondence will be entered.

All award winners (except Alumni category winners) must be available to attend the awards ceremony in person on Tuesday, November 9, 2021. Employers must send a suitable representative from their organisation.

All award winners must be willing to participate in publicity and promotion surrounding the awards, if requested.  Details of the 2021 award winners will be published on WellingtonNZ.com after the ceremony.

The 2021 awards ceremony will take place on Tuesday, November 9, 2021, at The Opera House. 

The ceremony will be held with appropriate measures in place in line with Covid-19 Alert level regulations. Alert levels may limit the number of guests permitted. If alert levels preclude physical events, a back-up plan will be activated.