‘Laybying our Future’ supports research from Students Union

“The current tertiary system is geared against failure, with failed papers often restricting access to study or student support. So students are forced to work (paid and unpaid) and achieve at a satisfactory academic level. Needless to say this is having a massive impact on student wellbeing.”

“Counselling services at tertiary institutions are over-run and many have now implemented restrictions or reduced access due to the overwhelming demand of students presenting with depression, stress and anxiety.”

“With only 26% of students having support from family for living expenses those who don’t are forced to watch the quality of their education suffer or starve.”

“If we want our graduates to be the best possible we should give them the time and space to devote their full attention to achieving at the highest level possible for them, not force them to divide their time and attention.”

“Beating our students into submission through overwork isn’t going to deliver the returns that we want as a country.”

NZUSA believes that there needs to be a serious review of the student loan system as currently government claims around the impact of the student loan system means decisions are being made based off Australian research, which is from a system very different to ours, or are hopelessly out-dated.”

However, while agreeing with the overwhelming majority of the recommendations from the report, NZUSA rejects that there is any need to evaluate any perceived benefits from charging interest on the student loans of New Zealand-based graduates.

"When there was interest on student loans, it was inherently bad for women or for others who took time out of the workforce to look after children or other family members, and for lower paid graduates. Their loans grew as they struggled with other costs or while they were engaged in unpaid caring activities. When interest was charged women spent twice as long paying off their loans, now the difference is just months", explained Higgins.

ENDS

Tertiary Income and Expenditure Survey can be found at: www.students.org.nz/income_and_expenditure_survey

NZUSA Income and Expenditure Survey 2014 Recommendations

1. Restore postgraduate allowances.

The cut hasn’t saved money, but it has hurt the students who should be supported to research and innovate. The number of postgrad students taking on debt to pay for basics like rent has shot up by 32.62% since the change.

2. Introduce a universal housing grant in cities where weekly rent is gobbling up more than 70% of student income.

3. Begin adequately funding universities and polytechnics so that they stop passing cost rises onto students.

4. Scrap the unfair 12c repayment rate that kicks in at $19,084.

Replace it with an Australian-style progressive repayment system so those who can pay, do, and those who can’t can have enough take-home pay to survive.

5. Introduce a $10,000 national First in Family Scholarship.

To break the cycle of the poverty of opportunity and encourage students from families with no history of degree level study to participate in degree-level tertiary education. It’s the cheapest way of ensuring rising levels of participation in the transformative experience of tertiary education. Good for students, even better for underrepresented communities.

6. Lift the course related costs loan cap (frozen since 1) to $10,000 for first-year students and $3,000 for other students.

Students are getting into bank and credit card debt just to pay for basics like upfront hall costs and art supplies. It’s about access.

7. Restore full access for over-40s to student allowances, and access to allowances and loans for over-65s.

This is age discrimination and may be illegal under the UN Human Rights Convention.

8. Restore the national significance exceptions to the 200-week limit on student allowances.

We recommend doing this by restoring a category of qualifications of national significance where students could have access to further years of allowances based on the qualification sought. Cutting this has hit medical students hardest, who take longer than six years to complete their degree. They shouldn’t have the rug pulled from under them when still completing their first degree.

9. Begin to lift the parental income threshold again (frozen since 2008) so that more students, not less, can receive student allowances.

Since 2012 there has been a 24.61 per cent reduction in the number of students eligible for allowances.

10. Launch a full inquiry into the impact of student debt

Student support change timeline

2010

• Recipients of superannuation and veteran’s pension eligibility for allowances removed.

• Student loan establishment fee increased.

• Annual IRD admin fee introduced. A cost for having a loan that undermines the interest-free scheme.

• Two-year stand-down introduced for Australians and permanent residents.

• Loan eligibility removed for those who didn’t pass ½ their papers the previous year.

• 7-EFTS life-time limit introduced to borrowing entitlement.

2011

• Students aged over 55’s eligibility for loans for living costs or course-related costs removed.

• Part-time full-year students’ eligibility for course-related costs removed.

2012

• Post-graduate students’ entitlement to allowances removed.

• All exceptions (such as national significance or recognised long course) to 200-week limit on allowances removed.

• Parental income limit frozen. No longer adjusts with inflation, making fewer students eligible.

• Restrictions on borrowing – below the course fees charged – for pilots. Students need to find money from some other source.

• Repayment rate increases from 10% to 12% and repayment threshold frozen.

• New matching agreement introduced between Customs and Inland Revenue to restrict the movement from New Zealand of some student loan borrowers.

2013

• Stand-down increased to three-years for non-citizens and extended to refugees.

• Students aged over 40 restricted to 120 weeks of allowances, including any they used before they were 40.

• Parental income limit continues to be frozen. No longer adjusts with inflation, making fewer students eligible.

• Students aged over 65 all eligibility to allowances removed.

• Students aged under-18 doing fee free level one or two courses will not qualify for any component of the student loan.