School

[Eyreplenh]

Here's the deal.

In norway, each student pursuing a university or similar education are supported by the government. You get some money ten months a year, it's given as a loan at first, but as you pass your exams some of it is converted into scholarship money and some of the debt is cleared.

I guess something similar excists other paces as well.

Recently, I was asked to support a callout from a studentunion to speak up against a group of students critisizing one aspect of this standard that works in the way that it punishes students who work "too much" besides attending school.

The system says this must mean their jobs affect their academic performance, the student worker-bees say why should we be punished for working in stead of watching tv or slacking -you cannot actually know why a student is falling behind in his studies.


Now, before I throw my arguments out there, is there anyone heard of something similar in their country?

The reason I would like to know is this turned out to be a slightly touchy subject up here in the north, and my viewpoints weren't exactly applauded

[dark fuschia]

We have a different system but a similar level of financial support for students. Keep in mind things may have changed so sorry if my info isn’t current, but I suppose you more want ideas?

The student has two options for paying for their degree. Either they can pay for their degree themselves at a cheaper rate, or they can get a government loan which is interest free (still affected by inflation though) which they only have to pay back while they are earning money. So instead of a traditional debt, it can be thought of as a tax which you have committed to in future life.

In addition to this some people are eligible for an allowance for living costs (called Austudy). This is entirely irrelevant to performance; you only have to be enrolled full time in a course. Whether or not you receive it depends on quite a few factors, like if you have any assets, if your parents earn much money, and if you have an income. While good in theory, often people who need the money most are the ones who fall between the cracks. I was not eligible for it when I did my degree because my father earnt too much. It didn't matter that he didn’t give me a cent or support me (and nor should he!), while many people who did get Austudy received large allowances from their parents as well because their parents were pretty good at lying about that stuff or finding loopholes. In fact there are countless loopholes. So yeah I spent every weekend and many weeknights working during my degree. I actually think maybe it affected my social life alot more than my studies. So since a good social life can be extremely detrimental to study, maybe it balances out in the end? Although when I went back to uni and did an honours year three years later, then I did recieve Austudy because I had been in the workforce long enough to be considered financially independent from my parents (it didn’t matter I was financially independent from them before). I worked much shorter hours and had a much happier and easier lifestyle because I was receiving Austudy and I think I did perform much better because of it although maybe not as much as one would expect. I definitely remember that I used to get bitter about not receiving financial support during my initial degree, and felt jealous of other people, but I always tried to squash away such feelings usually with success. No one is ever on an even playing field and it’s the same group of people who always seem to find their way to the top no matter how the system works. So no sense getting hot and bothered and involved in such arguments if you ask me (lol am I a nihilist?).