Following David Shearer's (Labour's Tertiary Education Spokesperson) visit to Timaru, the South Canterbury Herald gave me an opportunity to answer some questions on United Future's Tertiary Policy and how it relates to the Rangitata electorate.
What is wrong with National's tertiary policy?
The problem with National’s policy is that it doesn’t do enough to address the cost of education and the country’s growing mountain of student debt.
When they were in government, Labour bought in interest free student loans. Then this term National added a 10 per cent payment incentive for any extra student loan repayments made over the minimum required.
These two changes have helped, but United Future believes that we need to do a lot more.
What is wrong with Labour's tertiary policy?
Labour’s policy doesn’t do any more for students than National’s policy will. Their move to re-instate compulsorily student union membership is a move in the wrong direction. Students deserve to have a choice in whether they belong to a union.
What is United Future's tertiary policy? What are the big issues facing students?
If you talk to any student, you’ll find the cost of education and the size of their burgeoning student loans are first and foremost in their minds. Students feel crippled and powerless at a time when they should be setting their sights on conquering the world before them.
United Future brings fairness and choice to tertiary policy and as far as we’re concerned, it’s a game changer. We’re proposing to abolish the unfair student allowances scheme and to transfer that funding towards providing a zero fees model. The current student loan scheme will be retained for supporting living costs.
Students themselves want a universal student allowance, so how will a zero fee policy as proposed by UF benefit them?
Like most students, United Future sees the current student allowance scheme as being unfair. We also see a move to a universal allowance as still being unfair.
United Future’s zero fees policy was costed for the 2008 Elections as being cost-neutral with a universal allowance. That is to say, zero fees will cost more than the current system but no more than what introducing a universal allowance would.
In regards to the zero-fees policy does this really do anything to change things for students who will still accumulate debt but in a different area, ie living expenses?
The zero fees policy is a game changer for students. With no fees, students only need to worry about course related materials such as text books and living costs. For living costs, students would be able to borrow up to today’s maximum of $170 per week. This equates to the total cost for an undergraduate degree of around $20,000 where a student is borrowing the maximum for living costs. United Future’s zero fees policy should represent a substantial saving for students.
How would UF pay for the changes it would like to make in tertiary education?
The zero fees policy would be largely funded by abolishing the student allowance.
In the long term, there would also be an expected reduction in the write-off of bad student loans.
With the current system, many students treat minimum student loan repayments as a tax for life, with any outstanding debt being written off at death. With United Future’s policy debt will be more manageable for students, which should also result in fewer students leaving the country in an attempt to ditch their debt.
Will UF push for the reintroduction of adult education given that the cost of around $13 million is a small amount to pay for the intangible value this type of education gives to communities such as Timaru, Ashburton and smaller towns in the area?
Regional towns like Timaru and Ashburton will benefit far more from United Future’s zero fees policy than Labours push for adult education. Our policy makes institutions equal on cost, which means that for a student, the main costs to weigh up will be accommodation costs. This is likely to lead to more students, adults included, studying in their own region.
The city of Invercargill was revitalised when the Southern Institute of Technology introduced zero fees to some of their courses and now United Future’s policy is looking to produce similar results nationwide.
Anything you would like to add?
Although New Zealand has some excellent tertiary institutions, we are starting to fall behind in international standards. Internationally, Australia has six tertiary institutions currently ranked in the top 50 whereas New Zealand only has one ranked in the top 100. United Future also has policy to ensure that our top institutions are focusing on the quality of achievement. One example of this is by ensuring that courses are taught by staff actively engaged in relevant research.
For further information on United Future and our policies, go to the United Future web site:
www.unitedfuture.org.nz