www.oocities.org/ubinz/press/1999B25HeraldRawiriTaonui.html
Poor students borrow more
by Rawiri Taonui, Herald column, 25 Nov 1999
Education is the key to breaking the cycle of disadvantage for Maori, Pacific Island and lower socio-economic Pakeha communities.
A promise of the student loans scheme was that it would improve entry into tertiary education for those least able to afford it.
On the face of it, some progress has been made. For example, Maori tertiary enrolments rose from 18,000 in 1992 to 23,600 in 1997 and between 1990 and 1996 the number of Maori graduates increased from 400 to almost 1600.
However, official statistics given this week by the Ministry of Education show that beneath the gloss, student debt disproportionately affects those from poorer backgrounds.
Both Maori men, whose average borrowing last year was $7040, and Pacific Island men ($7438) borrowed more than Pakeha males ($6847). Maori women ($6824) and Pacific Island women ($7471) also borrowed more than Pakeha female students ($6676).
Poorer students are disadvantaged in another way. Maori graduates leave tertiary institutions with lower4evel qualifications than non-Maori. Fewer gain post-graduate qualifications compared with non-Maori, and more than three times as many leave with undergraduate qualifications lower than a bachelor's degree. This translates into less earning power to pay off larger loan debts.
Significant numbers of Maori Pacific Island and poorer Pakeha students also withdraw from study before completing degrees, particularly during the first two years of study. This is usually because they lack the school qualifications of their non-Maori counterparts when beginning study, experience undue financial hardships while studying or find middle-class Pakeha tertiary institutions culturally alien.
Simply put, poorer students incur more debt while studying, are more likely to gain lower qualifications, if any, are less likely to secure higher-paid employment and will take longer to pay off their loans.
We run the danger of creating a class of unqualified and heavily indebted former students. Rather than breaking down old barriers, we are creating new ones.
In a recent worst-case scenario in Chile, tertiary institutions, facing increasing costs and competition over declining Government funding, were accused of enrolling students from poorer backgrounds, falling them in droves and using their money to fund post-graduate programmes. The vast majority of students in these programmes were from the wealthier middle-class. The poor were, in effect, subsidising the rich.
New Zealand is not at those gates yet. Our institutions of higher learning recognise the importance of maintaining access for disadvantaged students and, typically, have strong equity initiatives and policies. These include specialist mentoring programmes, counselling, annual recruitment drives and Maori and Pacific Island student groups on campus, all of which help. In a sign of the times, some now have food banks.
Progressive institutions are introducing one and two-year undergraduate courses which increase the chances of Maori, Pacific Island and working-class Pakeha students completing some form of qualification should they be forced to take time out or leave early for whatever reason. They at least have a certified qualification with which to secure work and pay off loans. They also retain the option of completing a full degree later.
These sorts of initiatives will be increasingly difficult to maintain in the present environment, which applies rampant market forces to education. The new Government needs to halt interest on student loans, revisit Government funding of tertiary institutions and set a cap on student fees.
Rawiri Taonui lectures in history at the University of Auckland.