Students cheer longer loan

Trainee doctors and others on lengthy courses to get funds extensions from next year

Students on long courses such as medicine will be able to borrow more to see them through from next year. The Government will extend the current student loan borrowing limit for those students from January 1, 2019, Education Minister Chris Hipkins announced yesterday.

At present, students can borrow through the student loan scheme for only up to seven equivalent full-time study (EFTs) years.

The cap was put on by the previous National Government.

The cap means students studying for qualifications such as medicine, optometry, dentistry and veterinary science reach the limit before they finish studying.

“In keeping with our desire to reduce financial barriers to higher education and skills training, the Government has decided that all students in long undergraduate programmes will be eligible to borrow through the loan scheme for up to a maximum 10 EFTs of study,” Hipkins said.

“Students in long undergraduate programmes are affected by the limits on borrowing disproportionately compared with students in other programmes.”

About 100 people would benefit from the change next year, rising to around 130 people in 2022. It would cost $11.7 million in operating spending over the next five financial years and have an $18.1m impact on the capital budget.

Funding would come from baseline funding, Hipkins said.

New Zealand Medical Students’ Association vice-president Ajda Arsan said the news was exciting.

“We’re obviously thrilled with the announcement that the EFT cap is going to be extended. I think today a lot of our members will be breathing

I think today a lot of our members will be breathing a sigh of relief that they’re going to be able to graduate. Ajda Arsan, NZ Medical Students’ Association

a sigh of relief that they’re going to be able to graduate. They’re going to fulfil their dreams of becoming doctors and that they’ll be able to go out and serve the communities they’ve always wanted to.

“It seemed like a waste and just made no sense to cut students off so close to their graduation,” she said.

Chayce Glass, tumuaki of Te Oranga (the Maori Medical Student Association), hoped more Maori would study medicine as a result of the change.

“It was sitting at about 20 per cent of people affected by the cap were Maori, and as much as that is reflective of the medical school population only 4 per cent of doctors identify as Maori. So it’s more about the longterm effects it was going to have on the health system if these guys couldn’t graduate.”

Jonathan Gee, president of the NZ Union of Students’ Associations, said it was pleasing the Government kept its election promise. “It not just going to benefit students, but it’s also going to benefit the health and wellbeing of New Zealand.”