Because my student loan would accrue interest. It's $46,000, but in New Zealand we don't have to pay our loan back unless we leave the country, because then the loan begins to accrue interest.
It's one of the methods they use to combat the brain drain.
One of the truly tragic things that happened this year was that the total amount left in the trust account is now less than my student loan. VUW knows this is true btw. I've whined about it before. That's why I think that they're being particularly slimy with their overtures regarding the Lilburn fellowship. That debt is what's keeping me here in Aotearoa. -
My Dad said he'd pay for university, but he wasn't quite rich enough to do that.
Would've chosen something other than music as a major if I'd thought I'd end up in this much debt! I mean, that's one the perils of being middle-class: your parents are too well-off for you to get any assistance, so you have to take out living expenses as part of the student loan as well, and, even then, I still had to get a job at Maccas to make ends meet.
Given that, you can see why I'm sceptical of kaupapa Pākehā institutions. It's all a racket, while the free course I just took was genuinely useful.