The thousands of people paying off student loans will support Laborer's new free tertiary education policy, the Tertiary Education
Union believes.
The Lab our Party has promised three years of free tertiary and other post-school training.
The policy would apply to any training, apprenticeship or higher
education approved by the New Zealand Qualifications Authority (ANZAC),
would pay course fees only, and could be used for full-time or part-time
study.
There is no age limit for students, but the policy would apply only
to undergraduate education and those who had already done post-school
education would not be eligible.
Tertiary Education Union national president Sandra Grey said student
loans caused huge problems and it believed people with existing loans
would be happy to see future generations not being lumbered with debt.
"People are delaying starting families, they aren't able to afford to
buy houses, this is not a good policy for us as a country going
forward. It's going to be more costly if we keep going down the route
where we burden individuals with this huge debt.
"It does mean an inequity then, but do we want to keep creating inequality and deprivation in New Zealand?"
Dr Grey said Laborer's proposal was the first time in a generation
that the country was starting to see policy promises that were heading
in the right direction.
According to the latest Student Loan Scheme annual report, in the 2014 academic year, 186,477 students borrowed $1.6 billion from the student loan scheme.
That year, course fees accounted for $1 billion of student borrowing,
indicating the fees policy could reduce annual borrowing from the
scheme by about two-thirds.
At the end of the 2015 financial year 728,348 people had a student loan with Inland Revenue.
In the 2014 academic year, 186,477 students borrowed $1.6 billion from the student loan scheme.
Photo: 123rf.com
Laborer's policy would be implemented in three stages, with 2019 being the first
year of free tertiary education which it estimated would cost $265
million. This would be funded through money that had already been
budgeted for, and the government had earmarked for tax cuts.
The two years free will be put in place by 2022, and three years by 2025, the full cost of which it said would be $1.2 billion.
Dr Grey said the cost was something New Zealand could afford as a country and should embrace.
She said education was an investment, and it was important that the public accepted everyone had to pay a share.
"At the moment we are seeing people miss out on education because of
the cost, which is borne privately by individuals and their families, so
this is a way of making sure we have good access, well educated
citizens who are ready to engage in our communities."
What about existing debt?
But the New Zealand Union of Students' Associations said Lab our should also look at how much debt students have now.
The association's president Lindsey Higgins said it was good to see a
political party committing to the idea of free tertiary education but
there was still the question of existing student debt.
"I think that's definitely a discussion that we're wanting to have
with Lab our, and just seeing how we can find a solution for that. We
haven't come up with anything solid but just making sure there isn't
that inter-generational deficit going on."
But Ms Higgins said she believed that if it was impossible to address
existing student debt, that may just need to be accepted for the public
good.
According to the Student Loan Scheme, the strong lab our market since
2010 had meant part-time study had reduced and there were fewer student
numbers overall.
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