Abatement

[unclear: e] cabatement cause many problems for stu[unclear: ts] that are quite unfair. These problems listed below:

There is no age limit on the abatement unlike the unemployment benefit which pays a higher allowance to people over twenty.

Married students receive abated bursaries on the grounds that they are living "at home". The exception is that two fulltime students, married or married defacto to each other, get the full bursary.

But students who are separated, divorced or widowed are not so lucky. They are treated as though married and get abated bursaries.

Orphans are abated when they reach the age of majority. While a minor the orphan gets the unabated bursary, unless his/her guardians live in the town where s/he is studying. But once the orphan reaches the age of majority, s/he is treated as independent and, having no home other than where s/he lives, the bursary is automatically abated.

In some cases a student's home is so far away from a tertiary institution that it is impractable to expect him/her to live at home.

These regulation mean that a student might be expected to live at home (ie not through s/he has to spend 2 hours a day travelling to the institution. Clearly these students are significantly disadvantaged, either they lose 2 hours a day in possible study time, or they face the prospect of surviving on $19 per week. The recent survey on student income and expenditure showed that only 6% of students are able to take this latter option.

If a student wishes to attend a university or technical institute outside the city in which his/her parents reside, s/he can only receive an unabated bursary if s/he is studying a course not available at the institution s/he would "normally" attend.

[unclear: e] philosophy of the abatement is out of tune [unclear: h] the realities of today's society. It is not [unclear: listic] to expect students to live with their [unclear: ents], and be supported by them, right the [unclear: y] through their tertiary education. Yet it [unclear: n] this basis that the Standard Tertiary Bur[unclear: y] is administered.

[unclear: remove] love these problems is a matter of great [unclear: ency]. For this reason NZUSA calls for the [unclear: nplete] abolition of the abatement.

Anomalies

**	Bursaries are only paid to students on full-time full-year courses. Students on block courses (eg. 8 or 12 week course at a technical institute) and "sandwich" courses (eg a period of study followed by practical work followed by more study) do not get the bursary.
**	Technical Institute students doing full-year courses part-time are not eligible for fees bursaries. University students however are, with the exception of Ph.D students who receive no assistance with fees and pay a total of $300 in fees over a three year period.
**	Ph.D students are not eligible for the standar tertiary bursary. Although two-thirds of them receive compeditive scholarships, grants or wages, one third get nothing.
**	Some students who are obliged to work in order to complete the practical section of their course, receive only the Standard Tertiary Bursary although they are doing a full-day's work. Examples of this are student nurses who have to work "on section" at hospitals as part of the technical institute courses, and social work students at Massey University who have to work on supervised field placements as part of their course.
**	Students in technical institutes are paid their bursaries fortnightly by direct credit. University students are paid three times a year by cheque (four times a year at Victoria University). More frequent payments would help university students with budgetting.
**	The Education Department is often placed in the position of being judge, judge, jury and executioner in cases where students appeal against decisions on their entitlements to bursary assistance.

NZUSA is therefore calling for amendments to the existing bursary regulations to ensure that these harmful inconsistencies are removed. It is called a Standard Tertiary Bursary and we believe that at present it is anything but standard.

Costly Courses