News

StudyLink, in association with the New Zealand Union of Students’ Associations (NZUSA), have released the results from their 2014 Learner Advisory Panel. Consisting of 178 learners from Universities and Polytechnics around New Zealand, the Panel aimed to outline the (in)experiences the students had with StudyLink over the past 12 months.

The first question students were asked was how their overall experience with StudyLink was in terms of enabling “smooth enrolment for the 2014 academic year,” the media release shows. The greatest difficulty expressed was in regards to the StudyLink website. Having to repeatedly send through documents due to errors, misplacement, or “lack of clarity about what was required,” was also an issue. Those surveyed also reported that they “were not told if there was a problem with their application or extra information was required until after a considerable delay.”

In response to this, StudyLink noted that they are continuing to improve services for next year’s applications. They said “the website is being redesigned and the content re-written to make it more intuitive and user friendly.” Updates include an information section for parents, as well as “further enhancements rolled out in November.” A prefilled application will be included, enabling returning students who have received a student loan/allowance in the past 12 months to re-apply online. StudyLink commented that the RealMe Identification Verification service will also be updated, and “this will provide the ability for students to authenticate themselves without the need to present physical identification documents when applying for a student loan and/or allowance.”

Last year StudyLink also worked with NZUSA in their “16 December Campaign.” This was a deadline given to students in order for their loan to be processed by the time courses started. According to the media release, the only issues with the campaign were “student’s lack of initiative,” and “lack of clarity around parental income evidence.” In regards to advertising for the campaign students noted that in future, StudyLink should aim to inform students through online pages and social media.

StudyLink asked students if they would prefer information to be supplied on social media, and asking further whether or not students would like to be personally messaged on their Facebook page. In regards to contacting students personally, respondents said this would be “invasive” and “did not want to be contacted.” Issues arose with security and lack of privacy on various social media platforms.

Overall students reported “improvement with StudyLink in 2014 compared with previous years.” StudyLink commented that students had been “very constructive” in their feedback and “these suggestions provide valuable information to target.”