Student loans are interest free in NZ. Many people therefore maximised them, put the money in the bank, and on graduation went to Australia: one can travel freely to OZ if you have a NZ passport (and vice versa).
However, the NZ government will get you. A student loan is still debt. Debt will bite you.
The basic arts degree remains, in my view, a rort, particularly in the US (where you need one to get into your ‘professional’ trade school). My advice is to only go to University if you have to. You don’t get an education there, you get credentials.
Legal action is about to begin against hundreds of New Zealand expats who have not made any effort to repay millions of dollars in outstanding student loans.From today, authorities will start sending letters to Australia-based defaulters warning that legal action is being taken as a result of their ongoing refusal to pay up.The letters will be the first step in what will eventually end in court proceedings – and a possible bad credit rating – if repayments are not made.Tertiary Education Minister Steven Joyce told the Herald authorities would be targeting expats who are “seen to be deliberately flouting their opportunities to pay back” their loans.People who have “significant sums of money” owing will also be targeted.”It’s about people meeting their responsibilities and that is what’s really important, so we will be working on this pretty hard.”People who are based overseas are taking on average 14 years to pay back their debts, and that affects the sustainability of the whole student loan system
via Student loan expats told: we will get you – Business – NZ Herald News.
Nearly all American universities are overpriced degree mills.
Like a snake oil salesmen, American universities send High School students glossy pamphlets full of manicured campuses and dubious quotes like “Get an Education, Accomplish your Dreams!”
For most Americans, student loans aren’t subsidized by the Government. Private banks charge interest, and the loans themselves are very difficult to defer post-graduation.
It’s a sucky situation because a lot of High School graduates who have no idea what they want to do with their lives take out terrible loans and go to a University just for the sake of going to a University.
There are alternatives. Community college for two years, or apprenticeships, or going overseas where the degrees are not overpirced. And, in North America, Canada counts as “overseas” because the costs are more reasonable
where you need one to get into your ‘professional’ trade school
By professional trade school, do you mean, like medical school and law school? Or schools that teach trade professions [electrical engineering, HVAC, carpentry, plumbing, etc.]?
NZ runs on the Scottish system. Medicine, Law, Theology Engineering… Like Nursing and Education, are batchelors degrees, with entry directly from high school or after a competitive “intermediate” year. This means that some Batchelor Degrees, such as the MB, take five or six years. But… the liberal arts need to stand on their own, as they do not get teaching time in Medicine or Law. It also means that the M.D and Ll.D are research degrees, not standard degrees.
American trade unions still have apprenticeship programs. Degrees aren’t required for those careers.
However; around 20 years ago they stopped telling High School students to pursue trades. “Get a degree!” So I don’t think many students these days realize trade apprenticeships are even an option.
Trades are needed. Trade apprenticeships — with mentoring by older men — is better for most young men than two years in a fraternity. For most young women, a degree in gentle arts is less important than learning practical skills or getting a second trade in case the marraige falls over etc. So apprenticeships for girls are useful as well. The US four year liberal degree is less useful than your appendix