Steven Joyce wants students to finish their degrees quicker. If they don’t finish them in six or seven years, well, they can fund the degree themselves as they won’t be able to get a student loan. He appears to be blaming students for dragging the chain because student loans are interest free.

It’s unclear whether “student loan” means for course costs ( I assume so) as well as living costs, and if so, that will cause problems, particularly for extramural students who work while studying – and may, for example, do a few papers a year and finish the last year off full time. If a student takes two or three papers a year, completing 16 papers in say six years, and decides to do the last eight papers as a full time student, they won’t be able to get a student loan if the limit is six years, nor will they be able to get a student loan for course costs in the last year if they complete the final eight papers over two years.

What happens if a student – particularly an extramural student – wants to have a break in studying for a year because their job is going well or they want to have a year off to concentrate on, say, raising a newborn child? Additionally, each extramural student costs less money and time than internal students, as they don’t go to lecturers or tutorials, and use campus facilities a lot less.

It took me six years to do my degree (including honours) but that was only because I did the last three years full time, passed all my papers, and did not have any years in between where I took no papers at all. Most extramural students ( which I was) don’t study full time for three years running. Sure, students who work may not take up loans for living costs, but they have to pay for course costs and books somehow.

If I was a lifetime student, I’d just do another degree and do it within six years. Then do another one. I’d have three degrees in the time that Steven Joyce took to do his degree in zoology, a degree he has said he has never used.

Unlike him I will be using mine. I start a new job next Monday.
UPDATE Just had a chat to the Minister’s office – apparently the proposal is for effective full time students (EFTS), meaning that this will not affect extramural students who gradually complete their degrees, unless they are an EFTS for at least six years. Good.