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The Green Party has issued a statement saying that the amount students can borrow for course-related costs should be increased to $1500 to reflect inflation. Critic is frothing at the gash at the idea of the extra moneyz.
The current borrowing limit on course-related costs is $1000 each year, an amount that has stayed constant since 1992. Green Party Tertiary Education Spokesperson Gareth Hughes said the figure was “out of date and should be increased and indexed to inflation”. Hughes recognised that “the cost of being a student has risen dramatically” and that the amount students are able to borrow for their course related costs should reflect this.

 
“It is unrealistic and unfair to expect students in 2011 to equip themselves to study for the same dollar amount as students in 1992. $1000 in 1992 had the same purchasing power as $1492 today”, Hughes said.
 

Hughes has written to Tertiary Education Minister Steven Joyce asking him to make this change to the student loan scheme. Critic speculates that Joyce is still quaking in his boots from threats of governmental takedown from OUSA Finance and Services Officer Dan Stride, and possibly now screening his mail for fear of anthrax. Hughes’ letter could take a while to reach Joyce under these conditions and email may have been a more effective method of contact in the circumstances.

 
With the academic year well underway, Hughes says that it is important that “every student has access to the resources they need to study successfully”. One way of doing this is “ensuring that course-related costs reflect the true cost of being a student”. With the average first year Health Science student having to fork out $710.04 for their textbooks alone, Critic has grave concerns for how the little dears are going to afford a year’s worth of Southern Gold slabs with their remaining moolah.
 

OUSA President Harriet Geoghegan, set to be a student again herself next year, thinks students should be able to borrow “as much as they need” for their course-related costs, as they are the ones who will end up paying it back anyway. Critic wholeheartedly agrees, and is plotting season ski-passes, weekend trips to Auckland and finally doing that first flat-shop that we have yet to be able to afford. Win.