Hot
Issues & Campaigns
Education Campaign
Student
Debt
Student debt is rapidly becoming one of the country's main problems.
Tertiary education was free until 1989 when user-pays was introduced.
New Zealand is now one of the most
expensive places to study in the world.
OPSA strongly believes in everyone's right
to quality tertiary education. User-pays education creates a serious
barrier to this right. User-pays really means Payer-uses because only those who can pay are able to use.
When fees were dramatically increased in the early 1990s the
government was forced to introduce a loans scheme so people
could afford to study. Student loans were susposed to make things
better, but all they've really done is transfer debt. Until
interest was removed, student debt was set to exceed the
country's national debt before 2020. While removal of interest was good, it's not enough and the things that create debt in the first place must be attacked:
Universal
Allowances
Students should not be the only class of people
forced to borrow simply to eat. All full-time students should
be entitled to an adequate living allowance equlivent to the dole - just
like they were a little over a decade ago. A basic human
right you would have thought.
Fees
New Zealand has had explosive fees increases during the 1990s
since our free-education system was taken apart; and still has
fee increases that outstrip inflation. Where education was once
free and open to all who had the academic criteria, NZ's fees
are now amongst the highest in the world.
Research carried out by New York's Buffalo University ranks
New Zealand fourth in the world for fees at public tertiary
institutions. The average costs are higher than those at similar
institutions in Australia, the US and the UK
.
Interest
Interest on debt was highly unfair - a lower-income worker (eg a
nurse) could end up paying more in total for
their education than a higher-income worker who can pay off
their debt more quickly (eg a doctor). The Labour lead government
cancelled further interest from the debts of students who live
in NZ, but the things that create debt remain.
Inter-generational
Theft
Our parents' generation got their education not just interest-free
- but almost entirely for free! However, rather than re-pay
it via fair taxes, they now live in a low-tax country and have
passed their debt on to us! A small increase in tax on money
earnt over $60,000 would make education totaly free...
Wanna
do something about it?
E -mail the
OPSA President
and get involved with OPSA's campaign against user-pays education.
