Students Say; Too Long to Wait for Too Little Money

There's an old saying "give a dog STB, and he'd ask for his bone back". These days the bursary is worth considerably less than an unemployment allowance, and to add insult to injury, our difficulties are compounded by the way it is payed out.

There are four bursary payments this year (last year there were three) but the first payment is still not till April 21. As the "student says" demonstrates students do not like this method of lump-sum payment as it makes budgeting even more difficult (and at only $13 a week its not easy).

Another problem facing students is that many, myself included, still don't know whether they are getting a bursary or not.

I went and saw both Victoria University's Bursary Officer and the Department of Education's Bursary Officer to find out why bursaries are paid the way they are. From what they fold me it seems fortnightly or monthly payments are feasible, but the problem is finding somebody to pay for the extra adminstration costs.

The university administers bursary payments on behalf of the Department of Education. The Department pays the University in three lump sums (a total of approx. $2.18 million this year) on 1st April, 15 May and 15 August and it is up to the University to pay this money out to students, in whatever way it wishes. To administer the present system of payment the University employs two-fulltime bursary officers who are paid out of its quinquennial (five-yearly) grant.

The first bursary payment does not happen till April 21st because it takes all this time for the two officers to check all the applications, and have them processed for the computer. To have the payments earlier would require an extra officer to help process things, and the University is not willing to employ one, despite the fact that it puts many students to considerable financial hardship.

Technical students are already paid their bursaries fortnightly, but the numbers involved makes it more difficult for the Universities to do so. (There are 4,000 technical students in 10 technical institutes getting bursaries, while there are 22,100 university students in 6 universities getting bursaries).

There are two methods of payment; cheque or direct credit to bank accounts. The direct credit method is considerably cheaper; for four-weekly payments the cost to the university is estimated at $14,314 and for fortnightly payments $18,314 (this includes two extra staff for checking course changes and bank returns). Another problem is the extra office space that would need to be found for the extra staff that would be employed; Robert Stout building is already overcrowded.

So the problem is who is to bear this cost. The universities have suggested that the Department of Education pay it. The Education Department does not seem particularly enthused with the idea. And anyway bureaucracy requires that such a payment would have to be considered in the review of bursaries and made a policy proposal by the Government. Even if this was likely it would be over a year before anything could happen, because this year's bursary review did not mention it.

Understandably, Victoria University does not want to pay it either (although Auckland University seems keen on the idea). Like everybody else they maintain they don't have any money. But they do have our bursary money (in toto $2.18 million) which they keep for several weeks before we get it. This money does not just sit there but can earn 9% interest on short-term loans. A rough estimate would put this interest at approx $9,000 (admittedly the paying of four installments this year will reduce that figure). At the moment it goes into the university coffers, and the university seems reluctant on using it to pay for the adminstrative cost of fortnightly or monthly bursary payments.

But by rights it is the student's money and therefore should be used for students. Of course $9,000 is not $18,000 but the university has not shown even an interest in using it to cope with the very real hardship the lump-sum bursary payments create for students. We realise both the university and the Education Department have very real problems that would make the implementation of a new system difficult, but this does not make students problems disappear. Its time student's needs were given priority over so called administrative necessities.

Salient sent its Student Says team out to find out what students thought of the bursaries situation The questions asked were — 1) Do you recieve an STB, and if so, how much. If you made an application and were refused, on what grounds? 2) Will you be able to live reasonably on the amount that you recieve? If not, what amount would be reasonable? 3) How often should the bursary be payed — weekly, monthly or termly? 4) Will you be satisfied to wait until 1978 for an increase?

One of the titbits we picked up from a recent edition of the Staff Circular. We can't quite put our finger on it but there is some lesson to be drawn from the $20 a day university perk and the $13 a week student pittance.

Travel Allowance

Staff required to travel on official business will now receive a per diem of $20.60 (up from $17.95) as from April 1, 1977.