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Students release budget wishlist
Students release budget
wishlist
21 May
2015
Media Release: New Zealand Union of Students’
Associations
Today NZUSA, the national student
union, released its wishlist for the Government’s budget
on behalf of New Zealand’s 400,000 students. Desired
changes include reversing National’s worst cuts and
immediate support for accommodation in the cities hardest
hit by the housing affordability crisis.
National president Rory McCourt said out of control rents were taking away opportunity to study for too many bright New Zealanders.
“After seven years of cuts to tertiary education and the double whammy of a housing crisis: it’s time the Government made changes to give Kiwis more opportunity, not less.”
Rents rose by an average of 6.3% in the year to May, according to TradeMe. The average student now pays $218.16 for a room in Auckland (up $8.26 on last year), and $188.70 in Wellington (up $11.52).
One of NZUSA’s initiatives received unlikely support from the Taxpayer’s Union, Stuff.co.nz reports. Union head Jordan Williams said he supported the idea in principle. McCourt welcomed Williams’ comments to Fairfax that “targeting those who don't come from a family where tertiary education is the norm could be a very effective way to bring lower socioeconomic groups out of the poverty cycle.”
Students’ Budget Wishlist 2015:
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 $19,800. Replace it with an Australian-style
progressive repayment system so those that can pay, do and
those that 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 1993) 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, 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 20 per cent
reduction in the number of students eligible for
allowances.
10. Stop shafting students, please
xo.
ENDS
NZUSA - New Zealand Union of Students' Associations
We stand for opportunity, for all.
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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