Growing Number of Students on Loans

In five years since 1994 the proportion of students taking out loans has increased by 30%. As the costs of education continue to grow with increasing fees and limited access to living allowances, more and more tertiary students are being forced on to the loan scheme.

Mrs. Shipley’s statement that only half of all students are on the loans scheme involves some shady mathematics. She has included all they part time students who may only be doing one paper per year and have the ability to find other income while they are studying. This option of increased income is not available for the hundred thousand students who are studying full time. Their proportional use of the loan scheme is far higher than fifty percent.

“It is shocking to think that tens of thousands of students would not have needed the loans scheme to get through university only five years ago but now they are burdened by it. Five years of constant fee increases and limited access to living allowances means those students will now be paying off debt to the government for the majority of their working life.” Said Otago University Students' Association (OUSA) President, Steve Day.

“Student debt has not remained constant over the past term of government it has got far worse. Debt has become an unstoppable monster growing bigger every time it eats another student’s future. Government needs to put more money into Tertiary education now if this monster’s appetite for students is to be ended.”

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