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Govt backflip a win for students

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Wed Dec 02 2015 13:00:00 GMT+1300 (New Zealand Daylight Time)

Govt backflip a win for students

NZUSA - New Zealand Union of Students' Associations Wednesday, 2 December 2015, 9:17 am
Press Release: NZUSA

Govt backflip a win for students

02 December 2015

Media Release: New Zealand Union of Students’ Associations
The national student union says Steven Joyce’s overdue decision to lift the cap for the number of years students are eligible for loans for some undergraduate programmes is an important win for students.

Now students studying medicine, optometry, dentistry and veterinary science can borrow an extra year for course fees and living costs.

NZUSA President Rory McCourt says the decision is a victory not only for the New Zealand Medical Students’ Association (NZMSA), but also for the national student union NZUSA, the New Zealand Vet Students’ Association and the Young Nats, who all kept the issue alive and put pressure on the Government.

“Hundreds of students at Auckland, Otago and Massey Universities in medicine, dentistry and vet science will be very relieved to hear the Government has seen sense.”

The decision comes off the back of a petition calling for a change, signed by over 20,000 New Zealanders.

“NZUSA supported the petition and advocated for a National Importance category so that other like-programmes could be exempted from the miserly 7 year cap.” says McCourt.

Mr McCourt singles out recent NZMSA President Elizabeth Berryman’s “tireless advocacy" as essential to keeping medical students front-and-centre of the debate in the last year.

“This change has come after five years of student groups lobbying and of showing Minister Joyce the evidence. But in the end it was public action and constant media that pushed him. He was adamantly opposed to this change five minutes ago and now he’s all for it.”

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“Let’s not pretend Joyce was doing any real monitoring of the impact of this policy. His ‘it’s about right’ attitude means ignoring the impact of postgrad allowance cuts, ballooning student debt and eroding equality of opportunity for as long as possible, until these issues face him on the evening news and they can't be ignored any longer.”

“The lesson here is that students need to organise if we want to see a change in policy from this Government -our arguments are not enough.”'

ENDS

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NZUSA - New Zealand Union of Students' Associations

NZUSA - New Zealand Union of Students' Associations

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NZUSA is the New Zealand Union of Students' Associations, the national body that represents New Zealand's students' associations and the interests of New Zealand's 400,000 students at universities, polytechnics and in trades training.

We conduct original research, advocate to Government and through the media, and support New Zealand's students' associations to be more effective on behalf of their members. We advocate alongside Te Mana Akonga – The National Māori Students' Association, and Tertiary Women New Zealand – The NZUSA Women's Caucus.

Since 1929, we've believed in a society rich in opportunity, where anyone from anywhere can become any thing. We support accessible, affordable quality public tertiary education.

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