Student loans, I'M PISSED OFF!!!!!!

[placidfemme]

And I feel there should be interest on student loans, maybe not huge, but it adds some personal reasponablity onto it, Something that seems to have gone in this PC world

-Indy

I agree... just not as much interest as there is now... I did a course for $6500, searched for 6+ months to find a job in that field... had no luck... found an alternative job... and now 3.5 years later I have a balance of $10,000 odd... and I've been paying it back every damn week... barely even paying off the damn interest...

[k14]

I'd like to see tertiary education more accessable for everyone. I'd rather see some other action by the govt such as a universal student allowance and a reduction in fees, but at least interest free loans are something.

Why is education not accessible to everyone? You can get by with the student loan and no help from parents/family, I know of people that are doing it. Unless you mean it should be easier to get into uni. All that will do is make the first year classes even bigger than they are now, the second year classes will be the same size, and all that will do is let the uni's have more money.

I'm in the last semester of my degree and will have a loan of around $33000 next year. Now if labour get into government and then abolish interest it will save me thousands of dollars and mean I can buy more and better bikes faster so it has to be good. I am still undecided weather or not I should vote for labour, I just hate the way they do business and don't really like helen, the opposition isnt that great either. So I'll decide when Im at the polling booth, thats if i vote at all.

In regards to some other peoples posts, I'll offer my opinion on the loan system. I don't have any problem having to borrow around $5000 a year to pay for fees, thats fine. The thing I do have a problem with is that to get a student allowance ($150 or so a week of free money) my parents have to earn under a certain threshold (around $40000 or so) or else I have to borrow the $150 a week on my student loan. In my opinion thats a crock of shit, this implies that if my parents earn over that much they have enough money to pay for my living expenses. Whereas if I wasn't at uni I could go on the dole, do nothing every week and get around the same amount as student allowance for it. This system defies logic, but I doubt anything will be done about it. [/rant over]

Thats my 2c anyway

[chickenfunkstar]

Why is education not accessible to everyone? You can get by with the student loan and no help from parents/family, I know of people that are doing it. Unless you mean it should be easier to get into uni. All that will do is make the first year classes even bigger than they are now, the second year classes will be the same size, and all that will do is let the uni's have more money.

I'm in the last semester of my degree and will have a loan of around $33000 next year. Now if labour get into government and then abolish interest it will save me thousands of dollars and mean I can buy more and better bikes faster so it has to be good. I am still undecided weather or not I should vote for labour, I just hate the way they do business and don't really like helen, the opposition isnt that great either. So I'll decide when Im at the polling booth, thats if i vote at all.

In regards to some other peoples posts, I'll offer my opinion on the loan system. I don't have any problem having to borrow around $5000 a year to pay for fees, thats fine. The thing I do have a problem with is that to get a student allowance ($150 or so a week of free money) my parents have to earn under a certain threshold (around $40000 or so) or else I have to borrow the $150 a week on my student loan. In my opinion thats a crock of shit, this implies that if my parents earn over that much they have enough money to pay for my living expenses. Whereas if I wasn't at uni I could go on the dole, do nothing every week and get around the same amount as student allowance for it. This system defies logic, but I doubt anything will be done about it. [/rant over]

Thats my 2c anyway

Thats partially what I was trying to say. As it is currently, some students have to borrow money to live, borrow money to pay for fees, textbooks etc, and then have to pay interest on that loan. The cost of all this must be a big factor in people deciding wether or not to further their study.

Under the current system, if you had to borrow to live, pay fees, etc. It must be practically impossible to go to med school.

[inlinefour]

If they do make then SLS interest free, I wonder if IRD would be kind enough to give me 17 grand back to buy a 2005 CBR600RR?

[Eurygnomes]

Hell...$30k? Try up and around $60k...and even though I'm on a decent ish salary - what I'm making and paying off under the compulsory scheme isn't enough to get rid of the interest. And I'd like to think - that in workign for public health - I have the taxpayers best interest at heart...and here I am...still with HUGE debt (so huge that the numbers are just numbers) after three years out with a PhD!!!

So...I'm off to Europe. To earn either E or GPS. The payscales are just ridiculous in comparison to ours here (I'll be on a 'training' salary and STILL making more than I am now on a 'scientist' salary) and the price of living isn't that dissimilar to make much difference. They also know what double glazing and insulation are.

:drink: to the brain drain!

[chickenfunkstar]

Hell...$30k? Try up and around $60k...and even though I'm on a decent ish salary - what I'm making and paying off under the compulsory scheme isn't enough to get rid of the interest. And I'd like to think - that in workign for public health - I have the taxpayers best interest at heart...and here I am...still with HUGE debt (so huge that the numbers are just numbers) after three years out with a PhD!!!

So...I'm off to Europe. To earn either E or GPS. The payscales are just ridiculous in comparison to ours here (I'll be on a 'training' salary and STILL making more than I am now on a 'scientist' salary) and the price of living isn't that dissimilar to make much difference. They also know what double glazing and insulation are.

:drink: to the brain drain!

Just curious, how much of an influence is interest on your loan in your decision to go to Europe?

[Eurygnomes]

The fact that my loan is going up - even though I'm in what would be considered a professional job - bothers me an awful amount, and is a large part of my decision to leave. I've no problem paying the damned thing off (morally/ethically) but I'd like to have the government understand that because I stayed on to do postgraduate work - therefore making me (in theory) more useful later on - there is NO chance that I'm going to get a job immediately that will earn me enough to cover the interest (just by paying off the minimum taxed amount). Consequently, I'd have to continue to live like a student well into my 30's to get it paid off in NZ.

Sod that, I'm afraid I've had my fill of 2min noodles! So I'm off to somewhere where pay and education are more realistic and I'll send money back to NZ to pay it off.

[Lou Girardin]

Sod that, I'm afraid I've had my fill of 2min noodles! So I'm off to somewhere where pay and education are more realistic and I'll send money back to NZ to pay it off.

This is why the student loan scheme is driving all our talented people away. Sheer bloody-minded penny-pinching.
The NZ disease isn't 'tall poppy' syndrome, it's envy. The "why should they get something when I can't' syndrome.

[Drunken Monkey]

...
Even now, 10 years later, I don't earn a huge wage, although I am able to charge more for my services. I'd love to go back and do my photography training but I can't justify three years out of the market plus about $24,000 more in fees.
...

I can't see how photography needs 3 years and $24,000 worth of training. I assume you mean course costs ex equipment - you could easily rack up $24,000 in cameras and accessories if you take it seriously, so that's cheating if you call it course costs.
Surely the only training you need is the purchase of a decent camera and an itchy shutter trigger finger?
Most photo journos are digital these days, so you're not going to need to learn old skool developing techniques. Ask someone to drop you a copy of photoshop and start fiddling!

[Eurygnomes]

This is why the student loan scheme is driving all our talented people away. Sheer bloody-minded penny-pinching.
The NZ disease isn't 'tall poppy' syndrome, it's envy. The "why should they get something when I can't' syndrome.

Aww...he called me talented! (indirectly and by association at least, I'm an approval junkie!).

Yeah, you're totally correct there Lou. The most amazing people I work with are all leaving - after about three years. Four of the five have been expats who've lived in NZ for at least 10 years (most recieved their edumacations elsewhere, moved here for lifestyle and now can't afford to stay here) and there's one kiwi lad leaving too. The replacements that they're looking at are, I'm afraid, not up to the same standard. But the company (and this may just be this company, I'm not generalising too broadly) can't/won't pay the big bucks to get the scientists 'back' from overseas in this industry. Then they wonder why they can't win grant money to do research into new fields...no track record...no grant money! It's a downward spiral.

What I'd like to see is NZ figure out a niche market with regards to science. Sure - we can't all study the whales, but think of the ozone layer hole, think of the native plants of medicinal use perhaps, think of the volcanic activity, think of the smallish population we have here, think of the interesting genetic heritage, think of the unique wildlife opportunities, think of the socioeconomic issues with regards to a nation with two backgrounds, think of the issues keeping a language alive...

...but no. We have to go and try to copy the american research, the european research in a 'NZ environment' (I did this for my research too...so I'm not completely without blame). And what we end up with, because there's so little money to go around, is some underfunded project that is scaled down so many times that the final results are meaningless and cannot be extrapolated further than the sample that was involved in the study.

*phew* Okay...getting off my soap box now.

[Milky]

...The thing I do have a problem with is that to get a student allowance ($150 or so a week of free money) my parents have to earn under a certain threshold (around $40000 or so) or else I have to borrow the $150 a week on my student loan...

Ditto here - I realise that it would be greatly open to exploitation if changed, but basing student allowance on how much your folks earn isn't catching those students who really want to get to Uni, but aren't being supported in that endeavour by their parents.

[Milky]

That's the other load of bollocks the government is spouting. The skills shortage is in experienced professionals and tradespeople. Keeping graduates behind may help staff the health and education sectors, but the majority of students doing their BComs, BScs and BAs, fresh out of uni, aren't going to make any immediate difference to the skills shortage. Hell, give some ordinary yobbo a degree, suddenly thet think they're academic and 'above' doing work in the trades. Also, these 'leaving graduates' are only valuable to NZ after they've picked up some valuable work experience on their OE.

Stop forcing young, non-academically inclined people who don't fit in at schools from staying in school through to seventh form (now through 7th form AND tech/uni) and pissing about - these people were traditionally out of school, learning a trade and earning money - not stuck at a tertiary institution, leeching a student benefit (or building up a large loan), bumbling through an academic degree they're not suited too just because everyone else is doing it.

I agree with you on the first paragraph, and the second one even more so. Make Uni more competitive entry, reduce numbers in irrelevant degrees, get more of the leavers from the school system into apprenticeships or trade training, and hopefully less BA/BSc students working in retail...

[Brian d marge]

This opinion,,,is worth all of 1/32 of a cent ...

Student loans ....IF you are government ..Mighty fine Idea....Shows up on the books as an Investment ,,,ie money while out at the mo ..comes back ,,,makes the books look nice and healthy ,,,Investors like that sort of thing tripple A rating an all that,,,,

From MY point of View ,,I am err older ,,,and will be dead and buried before I can realise on my 25 k investment in Education ,,,So there is little point in me paying it back,,,

I would like to return to NZ what NZ gave me ,,,I really would ,,,but you only have one shot at this life and .. If I did play the game how it was designed ,,Iwould be tax to the point of poverty.... as i see it ,,its 10 cents in every dollar ....over the threshold ( $319 pw) 。。so let say as a mechanic ,,,at 21 pecent ..plus me loan of 10 percent thats let say I am on 600 pw that leaves me with about 420 pw ... not a good wicket by any ones account

Its not the student fees I have issue with ,,that was only about 6k a year ,,it was the living costs ,,and as an Engineering student ,,( with a wonky brain like I have ) ,, I spent all of me time studying ,,,EVEN over the Xmas period ,,,yes I skyved a bit ,,,

The only way I can see of me playing the game fair and square ,,is by having people who use my skill pay for it ...which can and does in a market economy put me at a disadvantage ...( those who dont/didnt have a loan)

Nope it is and was an absolute cock up from the begining

( by the way my friend in America,,has just embarked on a masters ,,and he trawled around and there were all these programs which gave him money ,,,so by the end he had reduced the toatal amount to something quite manageable )

Right 6 oclock ,,time to start drinking "!!!

Stephen

[bane]

Not trying to piss anybody off here... not my intention
but as an x student who has paid their debt to society...

Hell...$30k? Try up and around $60k...and even though I'm on a decent ish salary - what I'm making and paying off under the compulsory scheme isn't enough to get rid of the interest.

umm, isnt the current loan scheme that 50% of anything paid directly reduces principal? In addition, if you dont pay enough money to cover interest (assuming above base-rate interest), the interest is written off?

....god I wish my Mortgage was like that (actually I wish my student loan had been like that!)

Whereas if I wasn't at uni I could go on the dole, do nothing every week and get around the same amount as student allowance for it. This system defies logic, but I doubt anything will be done about it.

Use to agree with that... however was pointed out that even with the fees we pay, government still covers 80+% of cost of tertiary education - typically $20K a year per student - kinda like being paid $400 a week....

Charging students interest on loans was scandalous from the day it was introduced. Especially being introduced by people who had free education.

The amount of interest being charged I had an issue with - should have been basically the cost of the money to the Government. However dont see why others should subsidise something that I will benefit from...

...thats if i vote at all.

oh FFS