Looking at the Education Vote in Thursday's budget raises an important question. Does the Government believe that all children, despite parental income, have the right to university education? The answer in looking at this budget is no. Its provision for students ensures that working class children will continue to face increasing difficulty in attending university. The basic grant has been increased from $23 to $27.

While this represents a slight improvement it in no way lakes into account inflation - which has been eroding the bursary since 1976. The maximum level of assistance a student can expect in 1982 will be $47 but very few students this year have been fortunate enough to receive the current maximum level of $43. To obtain any supplementary hardship assistance students have to go through a rigorous questioning process. Parents of students under 20 are means-tested to see it they can afford to support their children.

Harder Hardship

The Government has deliverately made it more difficult for students to get supplementary hardship grants - the national rejection rate in 1981 is nearly 35% - an increase of over 10% from 1980 on top of this the department is paying out hardship grants at a much lower average value than in 1980. Amongst the things which cannot be included as grounds for a hardship grant are fiat retainers, emergency dental treatment, repayment of loans from previous years, and books other than prescribed texts (very often "recommended" texts outnumber "prescribed" texts).

Under the current bursary system students are faced with a no-win situation. If you haven't earned enough over the holidays you don't get a hardship grant because you haven't tried hard enough. On the other hand if you've earned "too much" you're undeserving and don't need one.

The fight for survival

Life for most students is a continual struggle to survive. The budget has made only a token contribution towards improving the lot of students. It seems clear that the Government despite the coming elections is unabashedly pursuing its policy of restricting entry to universities.

Paulette Keating