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Government sacrificing future of postgraduate study
NZUSA Media Release 26 July (For immediate release)
Government sacrificing future of postgraduate study
First health professions, then student teachers and now architects are joining a mounting chorus of concern about the government decision to withdraw eligibility for Student Allowance support from postgraduate students from 2013 onwards.
“The government has sent a message that they expect our most indebted students to take on even more debt to complete their studies. From that we can only assume that their real intention is for New Zealand to produce less postgraduate students by making postgraduate study unaffordable and putting it out of the reach of our most impoverished students,” said Pete Hodkinson, President of the Union of Students’ Associations.
“What we’re seeing are higher and higher hurdles to student achievement being put in place. Postgraduate students won’t have to go on a hunger strike because they’ll be forced to go hungry without the support of the Student Allowance”.
“This month the official magazine of the New Zealand Institute of Architects, Architecture NZ, has joined the debate by making the point that more young graduates will be forced to leave courses with only three-year undergraduate degrees, suitable for being technicians in offices but falling well short of the requirements for professional registration,” said Hodkinson.
“The comments made by senior architecture lecturer Bill McKay that this ill-thought-out Budget announcement risks pushing more students over the ditch to Australia, need to be heeded. As he states that last-ditch option allows them to do their Masters and work part time for fewer hours and more money. At the same time they can network themselves into a better economy as well as sorting out their postgrad employment and international-looking CVs. If the government was looking for a recipe to accelerate the brain drain then they’ve found it”.
“The other message that the government has sent this month with their $2.1 million scheme for matching 30 postgraduate students to pre-selected businesses, is that tertiary education is increasingly being reduced to a game of picking winners and losers”.
“Even the NZ Initiative, a child of the Business Roundtable, has challenged this scheme for what it is: a distracting gimmick and a publicity stunt that confirms the view that tertiary education in New Zealand is being set on a direction that only rewards the selected few and that is being run as a lottery according to Ministerial whims”.
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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