The education sector says the country's recovery from the Covid-19 slump in international students is well under way.

Education New Zealand - the government agency which promotes Aotearoa to foreign students - says international student numbers are sitting at about two-thirds of the number here before the Covid-19 border closures.

Marketing and communications general manager Geoff Bilbrough says while numbers were not at pre-Covid levels, progress had been positive.

"We're really optimistic about how far we have been able to come in a relatively short space of time. August 1 last year the borders opened, so from a standing start we've got to the position now where we have got students across the country.

"We have at any one time at the moment between 30,000 and 35,000 international students in the country. Before the pandemic and the lockdown we were more in that 45,000 to 50,000 students at any one time, so that's the gap that we're slowly starting to close, and come back to where we were."

Geoff says students are coming from a range of countries around the globe, largely from China and India.

The annual New Zealand International Education Conference was held in Christchurch this week, and in a significant first, China's Education Minister Huai Jinpeng attended it.

Minister Jinpeng addressed the conference, saying that New Zealand was China's good friend and good partner.

"It's my first time to come to your honoured country. It's my great honour and privilege to be in invited by Minister [Jan] Tinetti to attend."

"In June, Prime Minister Hipkins paid a successful visit to China and had a very fruitful meeting with President Xi Jinping. They reached important consensus in many areas, including education co-operation."

He says he is looking forward to promoting international co-operation in education with New Zealand.

Geoff says it was extremely significant for Minister Jinpeng to be at the conference.

"China is our largest partner market, we get a large number students from them and they're an important part of it.

"This sort of bilateral, mutual relationship between the two countries is really an essential part of the international education sector and the growth of it here in New Zealand."