Post

Farah Mendlesohn
@effjayem.bsky.social

I'm seeing headlines about how 25% of students admitted to university without qualifications fail to complete their degrees, and that this is justification for preventing people without qualifications from accessing student loans. That means *75%* of students without qualifications complete degrees.

21 reposts55 likes

Chris Miller
@thelittlepakeha.net

that's pretty impressive success rates tbh. wonder what the overall rate of degree completion is - wouldn't be surprised if it wasn't actually *that* much higher than 75%.

Farah Mendlesohn
@effjayem.bsky.social

It's consistently around 88%. And exactly. We are being told to take our eye off the usury being charged to those who take out these loans, which subsidises the education of those who can pay up front.

Chris Miller
@thelittlepakeha.net

In NZ you can also get weekly living costs while studying if your income, or parents income when you're below 25, is under a certain threshold. Quite predictably it's very normal in rich families to use fancy accounting to look like they have no income.

Chris Miller
@thelittlepakeha.net

I think schemes like covering living costs should be universal - rich people will find a way to qualify anyway but the not-quite-poor-enough families struggle. Just give it to everyone and you reduce a lot of the overhead costs and cover more of the people who need it.

NickPheas
@nickpheas.bsky.social

What proportion of students are admitted to university without qualifications? Having never thought about it before, I would imagine the number is fairly low, meaning that the number going on to qualify could be unduly influenced by individual success or failure.