On 15 June NZUSA and local students' associations are organising a 'National Day of Action' on student bursaries. On most campuses this will involve holding a big meeting where your representatives will report on recent developments and where you can plan further action.

The basic reason why we are holding these meetings to plan action on bursaries is because the Government has simply failed to carry out the election promises it made to students in 1975. The Budget, which will be announced sometime in July, will be the last opportunity the Government will have in its first three years office to carry these promises out.

My purpose in writing this article is to report to students on what has happened to their bursaries over the last few years because I believe that the things that have happened show quite clearly that students gave not received a fair deal from either the Labour or National governments.

When the Labour Government was elected in 1972, it had been ten years since there had been any radical changes in the system of bursary support for University students. Fees and allowance bursaries were paid to students with Higher School Certificate and similar qualifications, boarding allowances were paid to those who had to live away from home to go to University and "A" and "B" supplementary allowances were paid to those with a certain grade in the University bursaries examination. These bursaries were seen by the Government as a "grant-in-aid" to supplement students' holiday earnings and other forms of income.