Student loans

Notwithstanding the very real benefits and social imperatives of helping students from relatively underprivileged backgrounds through tertiary education, the Government's intention to claw back eligibility for student allowances, and to increase the rate at which interest-free student loans are repaid, does address the problem of steadily rising debt.

Those people with student loans going on their big OE will have to start repaying their loans after just one year and provide Inland Revenue with a contact in New Zealand to help track them down.

Proposed Government moves to rein in the student loan scheme "in a big way" could ultimately harm the Dunedin economy, Otago Polytechnic Students' Association official Mark Baxter warns.

Legal action is to start against Kiwis in Australia who have not made any effort to repay millions of dollars in outstanding student loans.

Legal action is about to begin against hundreds of New Zealand expats who have not made any effort to repay millions of dollars in student loans.

I'm one of the thousands of New Zealanders who attend, or have attended, university as an over-55 "mature student" and incurring a government-funded student loan to pay course fees.

The Government is to get tough on New Zealanders overseas who refuse to pay down their student loans and may use court orders to have them repay their entire debt, as part of a package to reduce the ballooning cost of the scheme.

How much do some thousands of New Zealanders value their tertiary education?

Tertiary education minister Steven Joyce says he is "comfortable" thousands of tertiary students will not get student loans to continue their studies next year.