Thousands of tertiary students could find themselves without student loans and allowances next year, and Otago Polytechnic chief executive Phil Ker says most of them are oblivious of the fact.
In the May Budget, the Government announced several significant changes to student loans and allowances, including more stringent performance requirements.
Students failing more than half their papers over a period will not get another loan until they make up at their own expense the papers missed. They will also not be able to get a student allowance to meet living costs.
Eventually, students will be assessed over about five years of study, depending on how many papers they enrol for annually. But the immediate impact is that students who failed more than half their papers in 2009 and this year will be ineligible for financial assistance next year.
More than 426,000 domestic students were enrolled in tertiary study last year, the latest Ministry of Education statistics show. Almost 200,000 of them had loans and/or allowances.
Tertiary Education Minister Steven Joyce estimated this week 9000 students could miss out on funding next year.
The change will affect polytechnic students more than university students as polytechnic students are more likely to fail papers.
Student performance data released by the Tertiary Education Commission (TEC) this month showed the median for completing papers was 84% across the university sector and 70% across polytechnics.
Modelling at Otago Polytechnic showed as many as 600 students - 20% of the institution's current roll - could be affected, Mr Ker said yesterday.
Other polytechnic heads he had spoken to had estimated between 10% and 30% of their students might be at risk.
The impact on University of Otago students was expected to be minimal, academic and international deputy vice-chancellor Prof Vernon Squire said yesterday.
Mr Ker said he was "relaxed" about performance criteria being tightened.
"Students need to know they can't come here and fool around [with their studies]."
But he said it was "abhorrent" the policy had been backdated, as students who had failed in the past two years "for whatever reason" had no chance of remedying that.
Students who could not afford to pay course and living costs would drop out, he said, "If even 5% of this year's students we had expected to re-enrol don't, that will be potentially financially disastrous for us."
Most students did not know the requirements started from next year and polytechnic staff were now "bombarding them with information".
Most University of Otago students achieved to a very high standard, Prof Squire said. The TEC data showed Otago had the highest-equal course pass rates and highest qualification completion rates in the tertiary sector.
Students who did not pass more than half their papers over two years despite assistance from support staff were already barred under the university's academic progress policy, he said.
REQUIREMENTS
• Students failing more than half their papers over a specified period ineligible for student loans or allowances until they pass the number of papers missed.
• When system fully in place, performance assessed over rolling five-year average.
• Backdated to study commenced in 2009.
• Students failing more than than half their papers in 2009 and 2010 ineligible for loans next year.
• Students ineligible for loans can still attend tertiary institution provided they pay their own course fees and living costs.
• Students failing because of unforeseen circumstances such as serious illness may have performance requirements waived.
