Students consider options after allowance cuts

24/11/2012 4:05:47 p.m.

Sarah wrote:

Why not say those doing majority 1st year papers at uni don't get student allowance instead? I mean seriously it is well known that the largest drop out rate is from those in first year. If you could only get student allowance from 2nd year onwards then that way people would have to earn the student allowance by passing their first year courses. So rather than waste student allowance on people who are going to bum around and fail their courses or drop out of uni after first year..... wouldn't it be more sensible to let students doing postgrad study have student allowance as at least they will be more likely to go onto to jobs. And if people actually think 'my parents don't earn enough so how will I afford to live?', the majority of students who can't receive student allowance, well they support themselves by getting a parttime job during undergrad, not by parents supporting them. Finally speaking as a PhD student, to the govt... what maybe you don't realise is that unlike undergrad when you actually have time for part-time work, PhD work is far more than 40hrs a week, they are often more like 50-60-70hrs of work a week. So please tell me when do I have time to work a part-time job??

24/11/2012 11:23:57 a.m.

Dan wrote:

Of course this was a pioneering country. I have relatives that came to live here in the mid 1800's and they built their own houses, grew their own vegetables and carved out their own careers in areas such as agriculture, horticulture and I think it was my great-great-grandfather that started up his own butcher shop. While I would not go so far as to agree with Carlos in his view of getting rid of benefits, I also do not agree with the view that we are a nation of uneducated people and there were no pioneers.

24/11/2012 11:16:32 a.m.

Carlos wrote:

I have heard of Sir David Attenborough, ESMI (dalt), he did the hard yards overseas. NZ is too small for these self indulgent careers. Pull your head in !