Some Hard Facts on Bursaries

• Fact: The Labour Government only introduced its STB scheme after strong student protests in election year 1975.
• Fact: Labour's STB ignored a 1974 Education Department recommendation that the level of the STB be tied to the Social Welfare Benefit.
• Fact: Labour introduced 'abatement' - an economic lever to force students to live at home regardless of their age or wishes.
• Fact: Abatement has been recognised to contain many severe anomolies unfairly affecting married, orphaned and seperated students as well as others.
• Fact: The National Government has failed to [unclear: implements]1975 election promise to "undertake a complete revision of the whole confused bursary system".
• Fact: The National Government has failed its 1975 election promise to remove "all Labour's anomalies" from the STB system.
• Fact: The recommendation of two fully representative Bursary Conferences in both 1976 and 1977 have been ignored.
• Fact: Students who face special problems such as high costs at Lincoln College and the Auckland School of Fine Arts, have been ignored.
• Fact: Tertiary students are the only groups in the controlled income sector of the economy who have not been compensated for high inflation (see graph).
• Fact: The actual purchasing power of the bursary is now considerably below that the level that it was first set for in 1976.
• Fact: The $2.00 per week increase for the STB last year was in insult to the NZUSA Officers and the students of New Zealand whom they represented.
• Fact: Thousands more students will be in extra difficulty this year because they were unable to save money (essential to supplement their bursaries) over the vacation period due to unemployment.
• Fact: Part time jobs which provided essential aid for many students will be harder than ever to get this year.
• Fact: Only strong student action will bring about a just bursary level.