Chris Beard

Chris is the ISANA NZ (International Education Association) Executive Director.  He has an MA in second language teaching, a graduate diploma in teaching (secondary), a diploma in pastoral leadership and is an accredited ExcelL (Excellence in Cultural Experiential Learning and Leadership) trainer.

Chris has worked in international education since the early 1990s and spent many years teaching and leading student welfare work in the tertiary sector. This included fourteen years on the VUW Foundation Studies programme (Karori campus). In his current ISANA NZ role, Chris liaises with officials in the Ministry of Education-International, Immigration NZ, Education New Zealand and export education peak bodies.

Chris assisted with the development of New Zealand’s first postgraduate course in International Education (EDUC504, VUW) and coordinated ISANA NZ’s inaugural International Student Experience micro-course (2020). In his ISANA NZ role, Chris has contributed to the drafting of the guidelines for the Education (Pastoral Care of International of International Students) Code and the International Student Wellbeing Strategy.

His professional interests include policy and practice that enhances international student wellbeing and global citizenship learning for domestic students. In 2020 Chris’ reflection on COVID-19’s impact on New Zealand’s export education sector was published by the Journal of Higher Education Research and Development (Volume 39, Issue 27) and his CI model for intercultural contact was published by Transitions: Journal of Transient Migration (December Special Issue).