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Salient. Newspaper of the Victoria University Students' Association. Vol 42 No. 7. April 9 1979

[Introduction]

It's about this time of year, funnily enough always around budget time, that the possibility of replacing bursaries with a system of student loans is considered. Indeed it was this very scheme that Alan Levett used to re-project himself into the public arena several weeks ago. As yet no-one seems to have heeded his call. Hopefully no-one will.

Levett, along with others, has argued that a system of student loans will somehow make university education more accessible to all. While it is certainly true that under the existing bursary system, students from wealthy backgrounds get a very easy ride, often using the bursary as mere pocket money, the overall situation is hardly likely to improve if loans are introduced.

The basic flaw is that, while bursaries are paid out independently of need (save in the case of hardship allowances), loans go to the opposite extreme. A student will only take out a loan if s/he absolutely has to. As loans, by their very nature, have to be repaid, this will mean that students from poorer backgrounds will leave university with the heaviest burden of debt.

Students who enter university knowing that their parents are unable to give them a significant amount of assistance, and that they will have to survive almost solely on holiday earnings and loans, may be reluctant to enter university.

While loans might reflect need more accurately than the present bursary system, it will do so by disadvantaging those who most need aid. It offers them the money with the one hand, and tics a noose around their neck with the other.