Thaindian News

Wellington, April 19(ANI): New Zealand Tertiary Education Minister Steven Joyce has said his Government is planning to

implement a two-year stand-down period before new permanent residents can borrow from the Government to fund tertiary

studies here.

“You’re allowed to borrow for a student loan the moment you arrive, and that creates some interesting incentives for people to

sign up to tertiary institutions where perhaps they’re not as committed to the country, or not committed to tertiary education as

perhaps others would be,” Joyce said.

He, however, said the proposed two-year delay would not affect fee-paying international students.

New Zealand is also considering limiting the period undergraduate students can access interest-free student loans, possibly to

six or seven years, saving around 10 million dollars to 20 million dollars a year, the New Zealand Herald reports.

The Labour Party’s tertiary education spokeswoman, Maryan Street, expressed concern over another proposal outlined by

Joyce to remove the current fee cap on expensive university courses, such as medicine. “That is a disincentive for people to

enrol in those more expensive courses and they are typically medicine, dentistry, and other science programmes. Those are

exactly the sorts of skills we are going to require as we go forward in New Zealand.” Street said

Meanwhile, Pene Delaney, Co-President of New Zealand Union of Students’ Associations, said: “The proposal needed to take

into consideration smaller countries, including the Pacific Island states that don’t possess the tertiary infrastructure to support

such studies.” (ANI)