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Salient. Victoria University Student Newspaper. Volume 38, Number 11. May 29, 1975

The Fabled Tertiary Bursary

page 8

The Fabled Tertiary Bursary

Burglar leaving the STANZ Headquarters with a sack called monetary promises

Quote of the week: "If sacrifices are to be made, they must be in areas of lower priority." The Government is not prepared to compromise its social objectives."

With these words, Bob Tizard launched into his 1975 Budget and into a violent attack on petrol, cufflinks. LPs and student teachers. The most relevant section of the budget for students appears on pages 19-21, entitled "Standard Tertiary Bursary". Student teachers have for some time been anxious concerning their position if a Standard Tertiary Bursary (STB for short) were introduced. Their worst fears were confirmed last Thursday evening (further comment on Stanz appears in a separate note).

The Government has announced an STB starting in 1976 for all students in universities, technical institutes and teachers' colleges. The terms:
1.For those in the first three years of their course, $24 per week for those required to live away from home, and $13 for those who could live at home. For courses lasting longer than three years, the levels increase to S27 and $16 per week respectively.
2.The bursary is payable from the first week of lectures to the final one of exams (about 36 weeks in Vic's case), including the May and August vacations. It will be non-taxable and have no bond.
3.The present A & B supplementary allowances (based on performance in the bursaries exam or in the university exams) will be abolished. Those succesful in the Bursaries exam will receive a single payment of $250 at the end of their first term at any tertiary institution. What happens to those at present on A or B bursaries is not clear.
4.The level of scholarships is maintained.
5.Discussions will be held to work out a basis for cost-of-living adjustments.
6.Special provision is being made for married students and students with dependents.
7.Fees will be paid under the present arrangement.
8.Many details, such as the position of students coming from the sixth form, have yet to be worked o out.
9.Student teachers salaries are abolished. They will henceforth be on the STB, although those already on the studentships will continue.

The last point of NZUSA's ten point proposals concerned who was to negotiate the STB. The news on this front is uniformly bad. The "detailed matters" concerning student teachers are to be discussed by the Government, employing boards and teachers organizations — no mention of STANZ, the Student Teachers' representative body. This reinforces the impression, as does the Minister's refusal to see Alick Shaw last Friday, that the Government is going ahead with the STB without letting students have very much say in the details. This idea is given further boosting by the report in "Labour Leads", a recent propaganda document, which describes chats between the Treasury and the Grants Committee on STB, leaving out both NZUSA and the Education Department.

To give some idea of the new scales, here are some outlines:
Table 1: Bursary Payments.
These figures, in dollars, give the amounts that a student with Higher School Certificate (ie a pass in the Seventh Form) gets at the moment and will get under STB. As the present yearly payment of $250 is being replaced by a once only $250 for the supplementary A bursary, the best comparison is for a full three year course.
With panel in Higher School Cert. A Bursary
1st year 2nd year 3rd year 4th year 5yr course
now 180 225 270 315 1125
At Home
STB 468 468 468 576 1714
now 530 575 620 665 2130
Away
STB 864 864 864 972 2842

Amounts in $, STB based on 36 week year. The A bursary item is for all payments over an entire three year course.

From Mr Amos's press statement of Friday, it would seem that tenure for the STB will be under the same conditions as at present (see p.22 of Handbook for an outline of these, and a more detailed explanation of the present situation).

Despite the lack of consultation with the NZUSA on this scheme (most discussions with the Department of Education taking the form of NZUSA heavies talking and the Department listening) these increases are a step forward for University students, and even more so for technical institute students. However, as Lisa Sacksen, the VUWSA President, noted on Friday, the levels are still not sufficient. In Salient I wrote an outline of costs facing students this year. If these are given a broad inflation boost for 1976, Table II can be constructed.

Hand holding a card reading Standard Tertiary Bursary

page 13
Table sts of living.
1975 1976
Costs Males Females Males Females
2nd [unclear: yr bur] [unclear: 0] 1,210 1,400 1,370
[unclear: Vactic] [unclear: 6] 575 864 864
[unclear: Saving] 200 450 250
Net [unclear: Def] [unclear: 3] 435 86 256

The [unclear: ord] of caution on these figures: they are [unclear: ave y] tend should be treated as such. They [unclear: at sed] on very shaky assumptions on what [unclear: th rate] will be this year. The vacation [unclear: sav es] as explained last time, is the [unclear: earnings penses] students would have to pay [unclear: dur obdays]. Insofar as many students live at [unclear: h net] savings may well be far higher than [unclear: th ey] are being subsidised by their pareents [unclear: a that] some parents can obviously betters [unclear: a others].

In [unclear: ot the] STB does improve students' [unclear: postion rably], but especially for female [unclear: students still] a long way to go. More [unclear: question ough] undoubtedly "in the interests of [unclear: t my")] is the delayed introduction of the [unclear: s til] next year (the reason for Alick [unclear: sh of] "fraud" on Thursday night).

[unclear: There more] serious ground for concern in the [unclear: sit f] student teachers, who have had pay [unclear: cut up] to $2,500. This does not apply [unclear: to at] present at Teachers' College, and [unclear: next take] will have the choice between the the [unclear: STB intent] bonding system. None the-less, [unclear: stu ars] are annoyed because

1.They [unclear: resent] proposed level is far too low.
2.They [unclear: trongly] for a bonded supplement to the [unclear: S ble] much like the present secondary [unclear: teaching ip)], which figures nowhere in the [unclear: announc].
3.They [unclear: out] of the discussions, which were [unclear: undert ZPPTA] and NZEI, the relevant [unclear: teahers tions], who have in the past not [unclear: shown to] be too interested in pushing [unclear: students requests].

[unclear: Futh there] is one very disturbing thing [unclear: aboutth s], concerning their funding. The total [unclear: co immediately] apparent, and the [unclear: followin estimates], but something funny doing [unclear: see ing on]:

[unclear: Summary] Cost of the [unclear: Stand Ertiary] Bursary.

1. [unclear: University Students.]

The [unclear: l ial] Yearbook(p222)gives a break-down [unclear: of ceiving] bursaries in 1971. As the total [unclear: num ll]-time students now is probably little different from what it was then, these provide some basis for analysis. The figures are shown in Table III.

Table III: Students Receiving Higher School Cert. Bursaries 1971
1st yr 2nd yr 3rd yr 4th yr Total
F&A 3.0 2.5 2.1 0.8 8.4
F&A+ Bursary 4.2 3.1 2.8 1.5 11.6

Fees & Allowance, with & without the supplementary Boarding Allowance. Figure, in thousands.

By multiplying each entry in this table by the relevant bursary from Table I we get:

Under the old scheme, $1,922,000 would have been paid out to those under at "at home" category, and $6,742,000 to those getting the boarding allowance as well. The new rates are costing $4,018,000 and $10,184,000 respectively, giving a total of $14,202,000 as against the previous $8,664,000, an increase of $5,538,000.

2. Technical Institute Students.

Despite there being some 100,000 students enrolled at the techs, only about 3200 of these in 1971 were full-time (part-timers do not qualify for the STB). Giving the 3182 students $180 each (the present rate, without the small boarding allowance) costs $573,000. Assuming the average yearly rate for tech students is $750 (ie making an allowance for the longer year), the new sum is $2,387,000, an increase of $1,814,000.

3. Teachers College Students.

Problems aplenty arise with the figures here, but to keep it simple I have used only the Division A & B figures, comprising the massive bulk of the primary student teachers. Boarding allowances complicate matters again here, so I have assumed no-one getting a boarding allowance under the old system, and the same percentage as University students (i.e. roughly roughly 60%) getting it under the new system. As with all the other assumptions (except the use of 1971 enrolment stats, but later ones do not show significant changes) this assumption biases the result favourably to the STB (ie the STB position appears better off versus the prior situation than it really is).

Divisions A & B Student Teachers
enrolled Av salary Total
Under 20, 1st & 2nd yr 3630 2000 7,260,000
3rd year 768 2700 2,074,000
20&over, 1st & 2nd yr 936 3300 3,089,000
3rd year 1356 3500 4,746,000
Totals 6690 17,399,000

On the STB, 60% of 6690 (=4014), getting $24 per week for 44 weeks equals $4,238,000 40% (2676) getting $ 13 for 44 weeks equals $1,530,000.

Student Teachers' Total Payments:
under 1975 system: $17,399,000
under STB: $5,770,000
Net loss: $11,629,000

It should be remembered that not all students are covered by these estimates, but insofar as none are going to increase their payments from the Department of Education, this figure is a minimum loss figure.

Summing All Students:
University Students, net gain +$ 5,538,000
Technical Students, net gain +$ 1,814,000
Student Teachers, net loss —$11,629,000
Overall net loss to Students —$ 4,277,000

It must be realised that this is a minimum loss figure various assumptions were made above favouring the STB and hence diminshing the loss. Also, while there has not been much movement in student numbers since 1971, there has been a trend at Teachers Colleges towards older people training to be teachers. For instance, we assumed above that the ratio of under 20s to over 20s was 2:1 -it seems from recent figures that at Wellington Teachers College at least the ratio is now closer to 1:1. This would of course increase the payments under the present system, and hence increase the loss to students by introducing the STB. One can therefore predict that the total saving to the Government is higher than $4.3 million - possibly even as high as $5 million. In the absence of further calculations, $4.5 million is probably the best figure to work from.

Given Mr Tizard's opening statement on sacrifices coming in areas of low priority, it would seem that the Government thinks very little of students in general, and student teachers in particular. If the Government is not compromising its social objectives by this, could someone please tell me what is going on?

Gazette pay scales, 2/5/75 in $