Nemo
Joined : 26 Dec 2007
Posts : 3197
Location : Mariana Trench -- Hey Feds, come and get me!
Humor : Black
 |  Subject: OZschwitz: Homeless crisis at top university  Tue Jul 01, 2008 7:26 pm | |
| THE Rudd Government is facing pressure to boost income support for tertiary students, as Victoria's most distinguished institution — Melbourne University — reveals that hundreds of its students are homeless due to rising living costs.
The head of the Government's higher education review, Denise Bradley, has signalled she will urge an overhaul of schemes such as Youth Allowance and Austudy, amid complaints that they are either too hard to qualify for, or insufficient to live on.
She revealed the push as the vice-chancellor of Melbourne University, Glyn Davis, said 440 students were in effect homeless, "hot-bedding" with relatives or friends because they could not afford their own residence.
Painting a grim picture of student life, Professor Davis said a recent analysis found the majority of students were studying part time, with many working more than 20 hours a week to cope with rising living costs.
Vacancy rates within a four-kilometre radius of the CBD were around just 0.8%, making it even harder for students to get accommodation, he said.
"At the University of Melbourne — a university that has the highest proportion of (former) private school students … in the nation — we know we've got 440 students who are currently homeless," Professor Davis said. "It is clearly hard, and getting harder, to be a student."
Similar difficulties are being experienced elsewhere in the universities sector, placing the issue of student costs and support under renewed scrutiny.
Australian Scholarship Group figures show, for example, that an average teaching student in a share house will face costs of almost $100,000 over the next four years, including an average $5000 in accommodation costs a year, $5000 in groceries, $1600 in transport, and $5000 in HECS tuition costs.
Speaking at an education forum on Monday night, Emeritus Professor Bradley said her report, to be handed down at the end of the year, was likely to recommend that the Government improve student income support. But she conceded "it would require a very brave government" to fix the bureaucratic maze of programs such as the Independent Youth Allowance that overlap a range of departments including education.
LNK
_________________
|
|
