Salient. Official Newspaper of Victoria University of Wellington Students Association. Vol 40 No. 14. June 13 1977

They shoot MPs don't they? — Major Anomalies in The Tertiary Bursary

They shoot MPs don't they?

Major Anomalies in The Tertiary Bursary

1.	The bursary is not a fully supportive allowance and hence students cannot expect to be able to live during term time with the Bursary as their sole means of support. Where vacation work is scarce or parental assistance deficient, obvious difficulties will arise.
2.	The bursary has never been indexed to any increase in living costs, and the Government has not accepted the principle that it should be. Consequently, as costs rise, bursaries become more and more inadequate and yet there is no basis on which to negotiote an increase.
3.	Students who are not forced to live away from home in order to study at a tertiary institution have $11.00 of their bursaries taken from them each week. This is known as 'abatement' and has particularly unpleasant consequences for married students, students who are orphaned, widowed, divorced and separated students, older students and students who live just inside the Department of Education's daily traveling time limit of three hours (you can fly from Auckland to Melbourne in that time).
4.	Students at technical institutes only get a bursary for one complete course, irrespective of whether that course is one year or four years in duration. University students get a bursary for two undergraduate degrees and one masterate and may have it extended to do other things such as courses which are prerequisites for a masterate.
5.	If a university student who has a BA wishes to go to a technical institute to study journalism s/he will not get a bursary while at technical institute. If a student who has a BA goes to a technical institute to study a paramedical course s/he will get a bursary. University students should be able to do any course at a technical institute after completing a degree and receive a bursary for doing so. At present they cannot.
6.	The Government is presently reviewing the Standard Tertiary Bursary and has expressed its hope that the new reformed bursary will be introduced in 1978. Unless progress on the review accelerates more than a little, there is no way in which all the necessary consultations can be completed to enable introduction of the new system before 1978.

Bursaries Forum and Rally — Union Hall — Wednesday

Speaker will be the MP for Whangarei and Chairman of the Select Committee on Education. Make your presence felt and attend the forum. Plan further action for bursaries.