Latest / Early Edition with Ryan Bridge / Aidan Donoghue: Victoria University's Student Association spokesperson on student hardship

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Aidan Donoghue: Victoria University's Student Association spokesperson on student hardship · Early Edition with Ryan Bridge

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Tertiary institutions have dissed out thirty four million dollars in
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  Speaker 1: hardship funding since COVID. The peak was in twenty twenty one,
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  Speaker 1: where they gave away nearly nine million dollars. They gave
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  Speaker 1: away just under six million last year. So Aidan Donahue
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  Speaker 1: is Wellington's Victoria University Students Association Engagement Vice President and
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  Speaker 1: is up early for us good morning to aiden good morning.
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  Speaker 1: Why are the students having to get the grants?
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  Speaker 2: Look beginning the grants because they're obviously in need of
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  Speaker 2: extra money, and most of that we're seeing is in
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  Speaker 2: regards to MG costs and other sort of financial stresses
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  Speaker 2: like that.
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  Speaker 1: So let's look at the money. Aut says it's average
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  Speaker 1: amount of assistants last year four hundred and fifty bucks.
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  Speaker 1: Canterby University provides up to eight hundred dollars through its
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  Speaker 1: students Association. So how much are the students really relying
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  Speaker 1: on these grants?
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  Speaker 2: Many students I've really looked to these grants to really
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  Speaker 2: get biasedpecially when unexpected costs occurred. It's really just tough.
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  Speaker 2: It can really be a wide variety of things that
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  Speaker 2: need a toyship grunts for.
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  Speaker 1: Okay, So, and what impact is this lack of money
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  Speaker 1: and the cost of living crisis having on students studying.
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  Speaker 2: It's an immense impact. I mean, every hour that's worked
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  Speaker 2: to make up that loss and money is an hour
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  Speaker 2: that's not spent studying. And so for students, it's a
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  Speaker 2: really tough decision between working those extra hours or spending
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  Speaker 2: that extra time on a better assignment or better you know,
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  Speaker 2: engagement with the content of the course.
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  Speaker 1: Things obviously got tough during COVID. Are things getting better now?
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  Speaker 2: Unfortunately? No. I'm from our winter energy grants which closed
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  Speaker 2: in August. We've seen that the number of submissions received
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  Speaker 2: from twenty twenty three to twenty twenty five is about tripled,
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  Speaker 2: from about two hundred and sixty five applications in twenty
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  Speaker 2: twenty three to nine hundred and forty applications in twenty
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  Speaker 2: twenty five. And yeah, just to put those own perspective,
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  Speaker 2: every application is limited to one per address, and so
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  Speaker 2: that's nine hundred and forty households looking for extra support
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  Speaker 2: during these times during winter.
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  Speaker 1: All right, Well, we wish them all the best of luck,
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  Speaker 1: and I thank you so much. Adam Donahue from the
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  Speaker 1: Victoria University of Wellington Students Association. He's the Engagement Vice
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  Speaker 1: president for more from Early Edition with Ryan Bridge.
• 2:23
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• 2:25
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• 2:28
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