Grants vetting slated

Press, 29 April 1981, Page 2

Grants vetting slated

Lincoln College Council members have objected 1 strongly to the Education Department’s treatment of students’ hardship applications. i The Lincoln Students’ Association president, Mr i Geoffrey Bilbrough, at a i council meeting yesterday, said that the department was requiring to see the farm accounts of the parents of 1 some of the students who had \ applied for hardship grants. J Mr Bilbrough said he was t particularly upset that the j requirement was being sent t to the students, and not to t the parents. This caused a t further delay in an already « long processing procedure.

It had also become apparent that many parents were refusing to forward their accounts, because they were “not sure what the department will do with them.” “Do the students then loseout on their applications because of their parents’ refusal?” said Mr Bilbrough. Mr A. F. Wright said he found it “particularly obnoxious” that it was the farm accounts asked for, rather than the final tax return of the individual. The accounts provided varied information and involved many people and could therefore be misinterpreted, especially if not examined by experts. The meeting heard from

Mr Bilbrough that 1000 students had applied for the hardship grant since March 3, but only 36 had received replies. Of these, about 19 per cent had received the maximum of $2O, and 30 per cent nothing.

The Students’ Association had written to the Minister of Education (Mr Wellington) about the slowness of the processing, but no reply had yet been received. The college’s principal, Professor J. D. Stewart, said that on May 8, he would be leading a delegation to the Minister on behalf of the Vice-Chancellors’ Committee. This would raise a number of issues related to the bursary system.