Student Support

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• Not available on their website yet.

• Explore options to introduce a debt write-off scheme that limits the individual burden of debt, while incentivising graduates to contribute to New Zealand after graduating.
• Ensure that repayment rates reflect borrowers' ability to repay by adjusting the repayment thresholds to start at a higher income level, and introduce a progressive repayment scheme.
• Support keeping the current zero-interest scheme.
• Review the levels of Living Costs, Course-related costs, Student Allowances, the Accommodation Supplement and the Accommodation Benefit to ensure they are equitable and at a liveable level. (more here)

• Broadening eligibility for allowances, the parental income and age thresholds, the level of allowances and living cost components, length of allowance eligibility and how such changes could be phased in.
• Reverse the abolition of student allowances for postgraduate students and students in recognised Long Programmes.
• Undertake partial restoration of the Training Incentive Allowance for Level 4 courses and above (diplomas, degrees), possibly by targeting eligibility to priority subject areas.
• Reinstate post-doctoral fellowships for recent PhD graduates, scaling up to a cost of $6 million a year, so they are supported into research careers in New Zealand instead of overseas.
• Keep interest free student loans for all borrowers who remain in New Zealand, and for those students continuing to study overseas, or who are working for New Zealand government agencies overseas. (more here)

• Not available on their website yet.

• Not available on their website yet.

• National will retain interest free student loans. We will expand the Overseas-Based Borrowers Initiative to help improve the affordability of student loans. (more here)

• Introduce a universal living allowance which is not subject to parent means testing as a priority for all full-time students.
• Immediately introduce a dollar-for-dollar debt write-off scheme so that graduates in identified areas of workforce demand may trade a year’s worth of debt for each year of paid full-time work in New Zealand in that area.
• Review student support systems to ensure that they are adequate to support life-long learning and that they are fit for the purpose of encouraging students to devote themselves to their study free from financial pressures.
• Introduce a one year repayment holiday for New Zealand based borrowers upon meeting certain application criteria to give equity with overseas based borrowers.
• Review the Student Loan Scheme with a goal of reducing its burden on former students, in particular those on low incomes within the first years of leaving study. (more here)

• We propose a zero-fees policy for tertiary education in New Zealand in place of Student Allowances, accompanied by a push to increase the quality of tertiary education and protect the value of New Zealand degrees. This will apply to both full and part-time students.
• Such a scheme would mean that students would only borrow living costs, rather than the crippling loans which are currently being incurred to cover fees, especially by Medical and Dentistry students.
• A zero-fees regime would be funded by abolishing the Student Allowance, any shortfall would be offset by reduced rates or borrowing and default, an increased focus on repayment compliance and monitoring of overseas-based student loan holders.
• Focus on quality so that more New Zealand universities are ranked in the top 100 universities in the world. Australia has 6 ranked in the top 50 – we only have one in the top 100 – and this needs to change.
• Ensure all tertiary students unable to find work over the summer period have access to the Emergency Unemployment Benefit. (more here)