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Government hinders accessibility to post-secondary education

20.05.53

When it comes to funding course of the study, 55 percent of students at UNB rely on government student loans, considerably higher than the national, usually 31 percent. So when the Progressive Conservative government restored the parental contribution figure for student loans in New Brunswick, UNB students were hit hard.

According to government estimates, 29 percent of student loan recipients will be dummy by the change. That's about 4500 students. Some students find their loans reduced by a few dollars and do not watch a massive reduction in comparison to previous years.Others will find their loans reduced by a considerable amount. One of our students had reduced its lending by 73 percent! It receives less for the whole year that he received in a semester last year. The upset is that her parents can not afford to help the government has estimated to contribute.

The question then becomes how these funds to students for their education? If parents can not, or if they refuse to contribute, an option, students have is to go to banks for student lines of tribute or rely on credit card debt .With both options interest begins to accrue in a jiffy, as opposed to student loans where interest is charged only after graduation. Other benefits to student loans are Benefit timely completion, where collateral is capped at $ 26 000 if you finish your degree on time and the subsidiary program of reimbursement, which limits your monthly payments by 20 percent of your received if you qualify for the program. These options do not exist with private funding.

This move by the government is a step in the direction deteriorating to improving accessibility to postsecondary education.The main sales site of this movement is that it would save the government $ 1.6 million. However, there has been no study on the impact this will have on economic growth when fewer have access to post-secondary education. By hindering access, what is the impact on New Brunswick? No studies have been made.

The contributions of parents to build barriers students who need to apply for student loans to finance their education. These students will now go for the more debt after having to borrow from banks. What can you do if you are affected? Make yourself known.

Contact Martine Coulombe, Minister of Education for postsecondary education, and effort (martine.coulombe @ gnb.ca), Blaine Higgs, Minister of Finance (Blaine.Higgs @ gnb.ca) and Head of State David Alward (david. alward@gnb.ca). Let them know that change affects you and affects accessibility to proclaim higher education.

I hope they come back.

Jordan Thompson is the president of the consistency of UNB students and can be reached at president@unbsu.ca.

Source: Brunswickan

UNBSU will be lobbying hard against loan changes

20.05.91

University of New Brunswick students can guess to see their student union lobbying hard against some recent changes to student loans.

Earlier this year, the Middle-of-the-roader provincial government brought back the parental contribution to New Brunswick student loans – a move that will affect thousands of UNB students.

“This is a dominant issue,” said Jordan Thompson, president of the University of New Brunswick Student Junction (UNBSU). “We’ve been hearing all kinds of stories from students about how they’ve been affected by this. I retain reading an email where one student’s parents had to contribute $10,000 to their student’s education.”

On Aug. 25, Thompson and members of the New Brunswick Student Union (NBSA) sat down with Martine Coulombe, minister of Post-Secondary Education, Training, and Industry, to discuss the issue.

Coulombe announced that she was not reconsidering the reinstatement of parental contribution.

“This conclusion is really hurting accessibility to post-secondary education for New Brunswick students,” Thompson said. “However, the pastor disagreed and said that parents are a major funding source for students, which may not always be the lawsuit.”

The UNBSU is committed to working on this issue throughout the 2011-2012 school year.

“We will carry on with to lobby for this issue, though the future looks bleak right now,” said Thompson.

Another ambitiousness that Thompson and the UNBSU are working on this year is a Memorandum of Understanding. This document would be signed between the universities in the sphere and the New Brunswick government to set post-secondary education funding for the next four years, thus setting instruction for the next four years.

In March, the Conservative government ended a five-year tuition freeze that the Non-aligned government put in place in 2006.

“That’s another major issue that we’re facing right now,” said Thompson. “It will be one of our biggest focuses this year.”

Negotiations with the government about the Note of Understanding will be happening later this fall.

On a lighter note, the UNBSU will also concentrate on bringing in more entertainment for UNB students this year.

“One of the concerns that we’ve been hearing about for the past two of years is that the Student Union doesn’t necessarily put enough focus on entertainment,” Thompson said. “So, we’ll be putting a greater nave on that this year.”

Entertainment already scheduled to come to UNB are Yuk Yuk’s comedy, hypnotist Tony Lee and mentalist Wayne Hoffman.

Students can also guess more open communication from the UNBSU this year. Thompson and his team have established a listserv: a detail that students will receive via email that will inform them of initiatives the Student Union is working on.

“We’re hoping that this will be a more appoint form of communication with students so that they will be more aware of what’s going on,” Thompson said. “We wish for to bring more people to events and more awareness to what the Student Union is doing.”

Thompson, a bachelor of area administration student entering his final year, added that the Student Union is thinking of the win out over interests for students.

“We’re going to focus on our initiatives and hopefully have some progress,” he said. “We appetite to make sure that everyone has a fantastic year.”

Source: Brunswickan