WELLINGTON, Nov. 26 (Xinhua) -- New Zealand becomes the second most successful recruiter of international university students, according to a report released by New Zealand's education export agency on Wednesday.

    The analysis, conducted by Education New Zealand, compared New Zealand's position with Australia, Canada, the United States and Britain. It showed that New Zealand is a world leader in export education, Education New Zealand chief executive Robert Stevens said.

    Export education made up nearly 7 percent of New Zealand's export earnings

    New Zealand had a 2.3 billion NZ dollars (1.2 billion U.S. dollars) per annum export education industry, which provided employment for 32,000 New Zealanders, the New Zealand Press Association reported.

    However, New Zealand had not reached its full potential in the international education industry, said Stevens.

    New Zealand competed on a global education market, with English speaking countries being the main rivalry, he added.

    With big money at stake, competition had been intense over the last few years.

    However, on a comparative basis, New Zealand came second to Australia when comparing the number of international university students per head of population, he said.