Mr Ker, who visited institutions last month along with other polytechnic staff, said at the latest polytechnic council meeting the trip would help the polytech take advantage of a new trend where Chinese students were encouraged to spend time at overseas institutions as part of their study.
''There is a whole new attitude being driven from Beijing ... around the type of international experience that China wants for its students,'' he said.
When it came to international student numbers, the trip was already beginning to bear fruit and the first students from Linyi University, in Shandong Province, would come to the polytechnic's Auckland campusin October.
The turnaround, from the first meeting to students coming to the polytechnic to study, was ''astonishingly fast'', he said.
Mr Ker also expected the first students from Shanghai Dian Ji University, which was ''extraordinarily enthusiastic'' about its relationship with Otago Polytechnic, to arrive next year.
Otago Chamber of Commerce chief executive John Christie, who is also a member of the polytechnic council, said Otago Polytechnic played an ''important role'' in the city's relationship with Shanghai.
''We are now starting to see the benefits of several years of investment and that can only bode well for the future in terms of student numbers,'' he said.
