Universities ‘becoming middle class’

Press, 29 June 1983, Page 2

Universities ‘becoming middle class’

Members of the Lincoln College Council are worried that universities are becoming a middle class institution. The council expressed concern at its meeting yesterday that it was becoming increasingly difficult for students who were eligible to attend universities to do so because of financial difficulties. The president of the Lincoln College Students’ Association, Mr A. J. Hewett, had made a report to the council on the present bursary system. The new hardship grant introduced in the bursary system this year was a “farce” in the eyes of students and university grants administrators, said Mr Hewett. Under the criteria for the grants, students under real hardship could not apply. This included those students who could not find holiday jobs. The bursary structure was not in accordance with rises in the Consumers Price Index, whereas the dole and other major sections of the Social Welfare system were, he told the meeting. The Government had spent $9 million extra on the new bursary system, but it had saved $26 million in abolishing the Student Community Service Programme, which provided summer holiday jobs for students, said Mr Hewett.

The college principal, Sir James Stewart, said that he had recently led a delegation to Wellington to discuss the bursary system. He had had a letter from the Minister of Education, Mr Wellington, who had said that a submission was made to the Cabinet, but no announcement would be made until after the Budget. “There will be some adjustment to levels from our delegation, and I have no idea what that will be,” said Sir James. “I have a fair idea that the adjustment will not meet student or university needs.” Mr I. D. Leggat said that a combination of the present economic system and the level of student bursaries was preventing many students from being able to attend university, and he wanted this to be included in the council’s official view. Sir James asked what evidence the council had for this statement, and why the rolls were continuing to rise. “The only argument I have for the continual increase in rolls is that some students who should go into employment are choosing university instead,” he said. Mr Hewett said that the Students’ Association was drafting a request to the Minister for a national survey on the expected incomes and expenditure of students.