Salient. Newspaper of the Victoria University Students' Association. Vol 42 No. 13. June 11 1979
at the 'New Reformed Bursary' uld really be like
[ unclear: at] the 'New Reformed Bursary' [ unclear: uld] really be like
There are three areas with the present [ unclear: a] where major reforms are needed.
1. Inadequate Grant-In-Aid
The underlying principle behind the [ unclear: bur-y] is that it is a partly supportive allowance [ unclear: ich] is to be supplemented by vacation [ unclear: ear-gs]. It is not intended to be a fully [ unclear: suppor-s] allowance (as student-teacher allowances [ unclear: or] a living wage.
But the ability of the bursary to be an [ unclear: equate] grant-in-aid has been severely [ unclear: re-ted] by the inability of the private [ unclear: sec-or] the traditional source of student [ unclear: em-yment] to employ students during the [ unclear: mmer] vacation.
This has become increasingly evident in the 1977-78 and 1978-79 vacations. In the former at one stage 1494 tertiary students were registered as unemployed while in the latter it was as high as 1519. Most of the potential unemployed were absorbed by the Government sponsered Student Community Service Programme.
But a related side-effect of this is underemployment. Although many tertiary students can obtain full-time employment through the SCSP the actual duration of working time is often less than in a full employment situation. Also there is no overtime in SCSP. Consequently the earning power of many students has diminished.
Unemployed and underemployed students are not the only ones affected. Women students who tend to get jobs with lower pay rates, students living in areas where seasonal employment is not readily available, and students who are required by their courses to keep studying over the vacation or to work-in unpaid or low paid jobs face particular problems.
For these reasons the Standard Tertiary Bursary has proved to be significantly inadequate as a grant-in-aid system, let alone a fully supportive allowance, and consequently NZUSA is not only campaigning for a large increase in the base bursary level but also the permanent continuation of the SCSP.
2. Indexation
There is no set system of guaranteed increases to the base level of the bursary. The Government's policy is to annually review the bursary to take into account increased costs. Its rationale behind this is flexibility.
But this flexibility is not in the interest of university and technical institute students. In reality it means giving students as little if any, as possible. The size of the increase largely depends on the strength of NZUSA a at a given time.
Under the guise of flexibility the bursary level as set out in 1976 has significantly diminished in real terms because of double digit inflation. For this reason NZUSA advocates the indexation of the bursary to an appropriate cost-of-living formula. An example of the type of index that could be used is the Consumer Price Index.
Until the bursary is indexed as costs rise, especially in the basic fields of food, accommodation and text-books, it becomes increasingly inadequate as a grant-in-aid scheme.
The '$9 deal' paper of the Department of Education reveals the extent of the loss of value through inflation. This $9 is based on the STB level at the time of introduction in 1976. However, since the time of announcement in May 1975 the STB has declined in value by 23%.
3. Abatement
Apart from the failure of the bursary to keep up with inflation it has been the abatement which has caused the most controversy. - Its effect is that the bursary is "abated" or reduced by $11 per week for students who do not have to live away from home to attend a university or a technical institute. The assumptions behind this system are that parents should contribute to a student's keep and that students should live at home. In other words the abatement is a crude form of means-testing.
a) | There is no age limit on abatement regulations as there is, for example on the unemployed benefit which pays a higher allowance to those over 20 years of age. In one case a forty year old woman and her son, attending university as full-time students received abated bursaries because they were both 'living at home.' |
b) | Married students receive abated bursaries on the grounds that they are "living at home." The exception is that two full-time students married, or married de facto, to each other receive the full bursary. |
c) | Students who are separated, divorced or widowed are treated as though married and receive the abated bursary. |
d) | Orphans are abated when they reach the age of majority. While a minor, an orphan receives an unabated bursary, unless his or her guardians live in the town where he / she studies. But when the orphan reaches the age of majority he or she is treated as independent and having no home other than where he or she lives, and is automatically abated. |
e) | If a student has lived away from his or her parent's home town and the parents move to the same town as the student, the student's bursary will be automatically abated — even if the student and parents lived apart for years. |
f) | In some cases a student parents live so far away from a tertiary institution that it is impractical to expect the student to to live at home. If, for example the student between the home and the institution exceeds 48km; the home is situated more than 2.4 km from the nearest public transport; or travelling tine one-way between the home and the institution exceeds one and half hours, the student can live away from home and get the full bursary. But these rules are arbitrary and it is bad luck for the student who just falls outside them. |
g) | Students may attend a tertiary institution outside their home town and receive unabated bursaries if their chosen course of study or major subject is not available in their home town. The exception is students living in the Auckland urban-area. They can attend a university outside Auckland and receive an unabated bursary, whatever their course of study This measure was designed to take pressure of growing student numbers off Auckland University but is nonetheless anomalous. |
h) | A student whose parents live overseas, or move overseas permanently, is granted the abated rate. |