We can't take it lying down!

The Government's lack of action on student bursaries is part of its policy of cutting education spending.

The big increases in the cost of living this year have hit students like every other group in the community. The compensation the Government has allowed wage and salary earners has been small enough but university and technical institute students have received nothing! In the whole community, students are the only group to have received no compensation for inflation. Yet NZUSA's Student Price Index shows that students' cost of living has increased at a faster rate than the general Consumer Price Index.

Consider very carefully what Mr Gandar has told NZUSA representatives: there might not be an increase in student bursaries until 1978. How much will your bursary be worth then?

Remember that NZUSA has made every effort to co-operate with both Labour and National governments to improve the bursaries system. It is not NZUSA that has refused to talk!

In 1971 mass protest meetings of students and teachers made the National Government think twice about cutting education spending. In 1975 student pressure forced the Labour Government to introduce the Standard Tertiary Bursary scheme.

We have done it before and we can do it again! Weigh up all the issues. Talk to your friends. Support the protests against government inaction on bursaries and cutbacks in education spending - your education and that of thousands of students throughout the education system is at stake.