A lifetime of debt?

Elizabeth Binning at the Herald reports:

Angry students say they will be left with a “lifetime of debt” following Auckland University’s decision to raise its fees by 6.3 per cent next year.

A lifetime? Really?

The increase, which was approved at a meeting this week, means some domestic students will have to pay up to $1600 extra in fees, in addition to $660 in student services fees and building levies.

If fees have gone up 6.3% then how can cflunkan some students be paying $1,600 more unless their annual fees were already $25,000 a year?

Most degrees are priced at just under $5,000 a year. So a 6% increase is an extra $300 a year. For a three year degree, that is an extra $900 of debt.

The median income for a graduate is $1,055 a week, so they will be paying off the loan at around $105 a week.

So in fact this “lifetime of debt” means an extra two months paying off the student loan!

And in case the student association flunkies try and claim they mean the total level of debt, not just the additional debt, I quote from the student loans annual report:

The median repayment time for those who left study in 2006 and remained in New Zealand was three years 11 months

Maybe they mean a lifetime of debt if humans were rats and only had a life expectancy of four years!