The explosion in the level of student debt is affecting the future development and prosperity of New Zealand, says Will.

University is one of the most exciting times of your life. It’s also one of the most expensive.

Sorry.

But let’s face it – we all knew that when we signed up. We knew we’d be taking on a student loan. We knew that at some point in our university career we’d move out of home, possibly to a different city. We knew that we’d be paying our own way more and more.

Most importantly, we agreed to pay most of it back.

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No-one is disputing that students should pay their loans back. We might get lucky one day and elect a magical government that magically wipes student debt forever, but in the meantime students need to pay back the debt they agreed to take on. Where the problem lies is in the amount of debt we are taking on.

To me, the student loan system as it stands should rest on the premise that if we are going to put a cost on education, the cost should be one that students can reasonably bear. At the moment, it’s not and that’s why the system is broken.

I doubt that many students understand the sheer enormity of the amount that will be hanging over their heads when they leave university, and those that do understand probably can’t even comprehend numbers like $30,000, $50,000, $80,000 or the effect this is going to have on their life.

Very few probably understand that every year their university council votes to raise course fees by the absolute maximum allowed under legislation (previously 4 per cent, now 3 per cent) and that therefore the cost of their degree is going to rise from year to year.

Some may look at the $176 or $250 they are offered by StudyLink each week and think they’re set for the year. They’re not.

There are a few ways in which course fees and debt are affecting students. I’ll go through them one by one, with some useful statistics from the New Zealand Union of Students' Association's (NZUSA) Tertiary Income and Expenditure Survey to help me.

FINANCIAL DISTRESS

The explosion in the level of student debt affects students both in the short and long term. Short term problems seem more obvious and perhaps less important.

It’s a common perception that students are poor throughout their time at university. Most students prepare for this when entering their studies, with the assumption that this time is an investment in a more lucrative future.

However, there is a difference between having just enough to get by, and not having nearly enough to get by.

Currently, the average price for a room in a three-bedroom rental in Auckland is $218 per week. However, the amount currently offered to most students by Study Link per week is $176.

The joke is that this amount is called ‘Living Costs’, yet is not even enough to cover one week's rent. So in order to top this up, and pay for little things like food, power, internet and water, students are being forced to find additional work, and take on additional debt.

Students are turning to more and more desperate measures to combat the pressures of their debt, says Will. PHOTO: WILL MATTHEWS

Imagine trying to balance full time study with work. It’s like finding another job while you have a full time job already.

To cope with this, students are resorting to additional debt, including credit card and overdraft debt. We’ve found that there’s a 10 per cent increase in students with credit card debt since 2010, and that the average credit card debt is $1770. That’s crazy.

What this means is that when you leave university, not only will you have student loan debt of tens of thousands hanging over your head, you will also have a few thousand in additional costs to pay back.

You can see how this impacts students long term, but let me spell it out a little more clearly for you. Thirty-six per cent of students say their student loan will affect their decision to have children. Seventy per cent say their loan will affect their ability to buy a house.

Think also about commerce students, or medical students looking to start their own businesses or practices but who are unable to because of the massive debt next to their name.

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This problem is affecting the future development and prosperity of New Zealand.

Wouldn’t it be better for our future doctors, lawyers and teachers to be able to go about their incredibly important professions knowing that they received the best training possible, because they didn’t have to leave university early due to cost worries?

SOCIAL AND MENTAL DISTRESS

Student debt is also a silent killer. There is a whole world of hurt going on underneath the surface for most students that we are either too worried to talk about, or don’t know where to go. But the problem most certainly exists.

There has been a staggering twenty-four per cent increase in students seeking counselling for issues including depression and medication since 2009. Furthermore, another fifty-six per cent of students say financial stress affects their ability to study, and sixty per cent have serious anxiety about the amount of debt they will owe once they graduate.

It is unacceptable that we live in a system where a generation of people are suffering serious mental health issues yet no major action has been taken to alleviate the burden on students.

Students are turning to more and more desperate measures to combat the pressures of their debt.

A current issue is the rise of students entering into ‘sex for rent’ arrangements – situations in which someone (usually an older male) lets a younger woman into his home for free, on the condition that they will regularly have sex with him.

This raises serious concerns around consent, but it should also be causing all of us to question how a system that is meant to support students while they study is failing so badly that some people are resorting to living and having sex with strangers to survive.

WHERE TO FROM HERE?

Hopefully it’s obvious by now that there is actually a very serious crisis in process, and that it’s only going to get worse without help. Luckily, there are groups out there campaigning to do just that.

New Zealand’s student unions are all allied into a national New Zealand Union of Students’ Association, which regularly works with the government, political parties and other stakeholders on student issues. Auckland Union of Students' Association (AUSA) and NZUSA believe in affordable (or free) education, and are dedicated to the principle of lifelong learning, eg. that students should be funded and supported in their study for their entire lives.

Early in 2016, the Labour Party changed the conversation by bringing free tertiary education into the major party political discourse for the first time. It is our hope that this move will spur most other parties to make student debt and support issues key parts of their policy platforms and campaigns.

AUSA’s only political agenda is students, so we will welcome and support all parties that commit to this.

Will Matthews is President of Auckland University Students’ Association.