Latest / Early Edition with Ryan Bridge / Aidan Donoghue: Victoria University Student Association on National's student loan changes

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Aidan Donoghue: Victoria University Student Association on National's student loan changes · Early Edition with Ryan Bridge

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: National is promising to cut student loan repayments if its
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: re-elected compulsory repayment rate goes from 12% to 10% from
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: April 27.
• 0:07
  Speaker 2: An accountant just starting out and earning $ 75, 000 a year
• 0:11
  Speaker 2: will keep an extra $ 39 a fortnight or around $ 1, 000
• 0:15
  Speaker 2: more a year in their back pocket.
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: If you borrow and bugger off overseas, you'll pay a
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: bit more. Aidan Donoghue-Vuza is with us this morning. That's
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: the Vic Uni Students Association. Aidan, good morning.
• 0:25
  Speaker 3: Good morning.
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: Look, much in here... I mean, if you are borrowing...
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: And staying in New Zealand, this is a good story because, yes,
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: it will take you longer to pay off, but it
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: means your upfront costs aren't as high, right?
• 0:38
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, if you earn about $ 75, 000, as they said,
• 0:40
  Speaker 3: you're going to save about $ 20 a week. You know,
• 0:43
  Speaker 3: nothing to complain too much about.
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: So do you have any problems with this policy?
• 0:49
  Speaker 3: Not a problem per se. It's a bit of a
• 0:50
  Speaker 3: mess from us all around. As you said, you pay
• 0:54
  Speaker 3: it back longer, so the savings are not really a thing,
• 0:57
  Speaker 3: but to have more money at the end of the
• 0:58
  Speaker 3: day is better. But for us, there's a whole other
• 1:02
  Speaker 3: range of factors that we'd like to see changed around debt.
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: What do you want changed?
• 1:08
  Speaker 3: Well, I think it's the model. It's already interest-free.
• 1:11
  Speaker 1: How much more do you want?
• 1:13
  Speaker 3: Well, the model's not very sustainable. We've seen 18% increases
• 1:18
  Speaker 3: in the last three years. The universities are having to
• 1:22
  Speaker 3: get more and more international students to cover the fee.
• 1:24
  Speaker 3: We've got to hit a wall at some point if
• 1:26
  Speaker 3: the whole model isn't looked at.
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: But what's wrong with the model? Because state pays about, what,
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: two-thirds of the university fees, and the students pay the rest,
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: and the internationals top it up.
• 1:40
  Speaker 3: Well, the issue there is that... costs rise. And so
• 1:45
  Speaker 3: we're going to see more and more of those fees
• 1:47
  Speaker 3: that students pay, as you say, is a fraction of it.
• 1:49
  Speaker 3: But that's life-changing amounts of debt that you're looking down
• 1:51
  Speaker 3: the barrel of decades worth of repayments. And so universities
• 1:56
  Speaker 3: are having to get to a point where they can't
• 1:58
  Speaker 3: even forecast growth. They're going to have to pick a
• 2:00
  Speaker 3: number of students and stick with it. And as we say,
• 2:03
  Speaker 3: as salaries go up or cost to teach goes up,
• 2:07
  Speaker 3: students are going to have to pay more. And we're
• 2:09
  Speaker 3: going to reach a point where it's just going to
• 2:10
  Speaker 3: be not a sustainable model.
• 2:11
  Speaker 1: What about a lecturer wage freeze?
• 2:15
  Speaker 3: I mean– That would certainly put a cap on certainly
• 2:20
  Speaker 3: one cost, but then you're going to be looking at
• 2:22
  Speaker 3: competing with universities overseas, as our lecturers want to go over.
• 2:25
  Speaker 1: Aidan Donoghue, good to have you on the show this morning,
• 2:27
  Speaker 1: as it always is, from Victoria University Students' Association.
• 2:31
  Speaker 3: For more from Early Edition with Ryan Bridge, listen live
• 2:34
  Speaker 3: to Newstalk ZB from 5am weekdays, or follow the podcast
• 2:38
  Speaker 3: on iHeartRadio.