Researching my Issue
http://thewireless.co.nz/articles/getting-by-on-a-student-budget
"Will's student loan is a drop in the ocean of New Zealand's total student debt. The amount has ballooned by 87% since 2005 from $7.5 billion to a staggering $14.2 billion in 2014."
"According to the Education Ministry, more than 260,000 borrowers in New Zealand aren't repaying their loans either because they have no income, their income is below the repayment threshold or because they're still studying."
"Students would like to avoid crippling debt, but most decided to borrow money in order to get by while studying full time, and some say the money that they're allowed to borrow simply isn't enough."
"I think it's important that people realise that students aren't complaining because they want a bit more cash - it's that the support that we are getting is not enough to live on at all"
Students incomes aren't keeping up the the basic costs of living in New Zealand."
"A lot of people say 'oh you're a student, you're studying, you can learn to live on less money', but I think there's a difference between learning how to budget and what students have to go through."
TradeMe property data shows over the past five years the median rent across New Zealand has risen 23% from $340 to $420 - a record which was first reach in January of this year. In the same period, student load living costs have gone up just 8.3% from $163.38 to $176.86.
"If you want people to achieve highly and study hard and get good jobs to contribute to New Zealand when they graduate, people can't do that when they have to work a lot of hours every week"
"The number of students who qualify for an allowance has been falling with the Government introducing tighter restrictions on eligibility."
"I think it's certainly harder to be a student than it was in our parents generation. I think it's much worse to be a student today than it was thirty or forty years ago"
"McCourt says the idea that it's fair for students to live in a degree of poverty because they'll go on to earn money when they graduate, exposes the troubling attitude of the government towards it's student population"
"I think it sends a really corrosive message to the next generation that actually your country doesn't value you. This country does not care for you. This country will not ensure that you've got opportunity. So are we surprised when students head overseas, when students say, 'actually, this country has done nothing for me?'"
"I can't afford vegetables or fruit, especially in winter, and some days I get very tired. Sometimes I don't have food for breakfast so I don't eat until lunchtime and its very impacting because the course is so demanding"
"Once I pay rent, it only leaves $46 for my food, car and other bits and bobs. The problem is that I have to have a car because of my work and my placement is usually on the other side of town and I don't feel safe biking or busing late at night when I finish"
"My flatmates and I have a relatively expensive flat in Dunedin, but even then its still cold and damp and that why our power costs are so expensive."
"I go through phases of stressing about how much my student loan is, but at the same time theres nothing I can do about it now. Im just going to have to grit my teeth and bear it and hopefully end up in a job that can pay it off."
"I definitely didn't feel like I mattered when I was a student" - Jessica Castle
http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/ED1605/S00122/more-students-but-less-money.htm
"This budget is toxic for students. It will stop current and potential students from accessing education"
"Tertiary education staff have been papering over the gaps caused by underfunding since 2009, they cant keep making up the shortfall in funding"
"Students are living in slums or couch surfing from friend to friend.
Students cant afford to live."
The 2016 university year has kicked into full swing - but only 66 per cent of students are expected to graduate..
She chose to study a Bachelor of Communications degree because she was "kind of" interested in that field and didn't have information about other options.
Students battling "cold and mould" in poorly insulated and badly ventilated flats can suffer life-long health problems.
This cover of a past University magazine has stuck in my mind as it was very effective, shocking, and started conversation around the issue, to which I was previously unaware. James Greenland, the writer of the article, posted to Vic Deals Facebook page saying "Attention: calling all university students who are/ were also strippers and/or sex-workers, I am writing an article, private message me." Within an hour he had received 10 messages...
One man who contacted him employs eight "working girls" and said that "there are definitely a lot of student sex workers doing it because of how high their debt is". One student sex worker said "money is hard to come by as a student, and the 'living week to week' stress of student lifestyle has got to be probably the least conductive to academic success." She would earn about $600 a week doing about 3 jobs. She said she's had men "as young as 18 and as old as 74."Another sex worker said that she "had been applying for jobs since I was in my first year and had no luck because they all wanted experience, which I didn't have. I lived on my overdraft, and study link allowance... because I could't get a 'normal' job." She also said "I wouldn't be escorting if money wasn't an issue as it is emotionally draining some days."
