You were informed incorrectly, the license exists in perpetuity as long as the user is enrolled or is a staff member or other eligible participant "in perpetuity" and is used for instructional purposes only. In fact the University, as license owner, is required to "take all reasonable steps" to ensure that software issued under their license is removed from machines owned by those who become ineligible.
Using any Volume license to which you are not an eligible participant is piracy.
http://msdnaa.eng.ufl.edu/faqs.html#qc4
The only NZ tertiary institution that I know of that actively enforces this is the Wananga.
It might be worth checking directly with Microsoft NZ and verifying this before jumping to conclusions. My understanding (from reading MSFT documentation about volume licensing in general, and from having been given some ex-educational computers in the past) is that the licence is only valid for employees / students of the organisation with the volume licence. If the computer is sold or donated the software licence is no longer valid. I'm not certain that the same applies if the student / employee leaves and takes a computer with them, but that would seem logical. -- This email is for the intended recipient only. If you are not the intended recipient you must burn your computer, while standing on one foot and chanting the entire jabberwocky. The opinions expressed here are not necessarily the opinions of the person who expressed them.