Allowance cuts may put students off

University students say student allowance cuts will discourage people from pursuing postgraduate study.

“This is my fourth year, and this could change my decision on whether I continue to do my Masters,” said James Manning, a English and media arts honours student at Victoria University.

Tertiary Education Minister Steven Joyce announced on May 1 that the student allowance would be limited to four years of study to try to control its increasing cost. Students can receive up to $206.73 a week student allowance, depending on how much their parents earn.

Jane Currie is studying honours in psychology and hopes to become a clinical psychologist. She gets the student allowance and some child support.

She already has an honours degree in economics but discovered her passion for psychology after she began counselling people with cancer for the charity she founded,  Health Journeys. Jane, who is herself a breast cancer survivor, believes that psycho oncology, the psychology of having cancer, is an area under researched in New Zealand.

She says people in her class are talking about cutting their studies short because of the allowance changes.

“What we are doing is saying you can get an education only if you have a bit of finance behind you.”

She believes the cuts will affect those taking on longer degrees.

“A lot of the areas affected are the ones where the government says there is a workforce shortage. We need psychologists, we need dentists, medical people and engineers. ”

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