h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Wow I've been busy! There's stuff I've been wanting to mention in my journal here for a fortnight or more, but I still don't have time to write it.
Basically I've got an exam coming up, but I'm not too worried about it (even though it's on complex programming algorithms, so I /should/ be worried ). Before I can think about that, though, I have to get an assignment and a seminar out of the way.
Last night I finished one of the two parts of the assignment - well so I thought... I've actually just started on a "small" (god I hope so) change to it. Rather than go into details of how to optimise non-recursive recursive chaotic search trees, I'll just leave the description at that for now.
I've been putting off preparation for my seminar for /far/ too long, and I have to do it on friday. I really don't want to.
At least on saturday I can say Yay! I don't have to worry about the seminar any more!
Lookin' forward to that.

I was late onto hootoo today because I was at a protest. The university council were voting on a proposed student fee increase, and basically the only thing that the university would get out of it is to be able to pay its council more.
So we invaded the meeting. There were four of us who knew our way to the board room, because we did exactly the same thing four years ago. That time, though, the council was taking the student's side against a proposed government fee increase, so they said we could walk in and basically take over the building. So we did. We were there for three weeks before the government retracted the proposal.
This time, however, it was the council working to its own agenda, and there was nothing we could do. The student fees will go up next year at 3.5% for domestic students, and between 8 and 10% for international students. Enrolments are down already, and have been steadily falling for the last three years.
I /really/ need to get out of this country.

I've said it before and I'll reiterate it now. 120,000 students - thats one hundred and twenty thousand students - now /owe/ the government $7,000,000,000 - that's seven BILLION dollars - because of the student loans scheme. Students now have no option but to borrow money using that scheme, unless they already have the savings behind them to live off for three to four years, plus the cost of the course.
Student's aren't eligible for any kind of living allowance, or for any kind of hardship allowance, or for any support over summer if they can't find work.
At 120,000 students and $7 billion, that's an /average/ of just over $58,000 debt each.
Which is calculated at an interest rate of 7% per annum. Calculated daily. Which is evil. Compound interest. Which is even more evil. As a seperate debt for each year of study. Which means compunding compund interest.
Which means that the /average/ time to pay back that debt, plus the whacking amounts of interest, is /no less/ than (depending on which demographic you look at I mean) 22 years.
In other words, the ones who can /best/ afford to pay back the amount that they borrowed to live while they studied, will take 22 years to do so, on average. For other demographics - minority cultures, women, or those who undertake a more expensive degree, for example - that number increases. For example, a female nursing student is expected to be in the debt of the government for /at least/ thirty-nine years. Assuming she went straight from school to uni, and from uni straight into the workforce in NZ, she'll be able to /start/ saving for a house or thinking about having kids, at the age of ... ... sixty one. Ye gods even I hadn't realised that was so bad!
For some other demographics, the numbers are upwards of fifty years estimated average repayment time.

Okay I'm fed up with thinking about this, I'm going to go reply to some posts before I get too pissed off.

sorry to hear about all the stupid increases...

luckily for me i'll be able to live with my parents while i go to school.
or is that unluckily?

where you going to go
look at who the Australians just reelected as their PM, my bet is Bush is going to scrape through in the US election, and Tony Blair looks like a dead cert to get reelected next year
the s are running the asylum

on a brighter note congrats on finishing (nearly) part of your assignment

hmm... yes...
lets all talk about something cheerful. it seems theres so much to be depressed about, i may just get overwhelmed...... chemestry test tomorrow!!!

so i definately need some happy distraction, i think we could all do with some...

I'll be going to Canada! That's happy!

... when I can afford it.

I may end up doing what so many others have done... once you leave the country the IRD has no jurisdiction to /make/ you pay back the student loan, so if I leave the country I may not pay it.
we'll see.
If people are expected to die before paying back even a fifth of what the government claims they owe, then I don't see what would be so bad about just leaving.
Only problem is, if I ever come back to the country - say for a family member's funeral or whatever - then I could get arrested at customs for committing tax fraud.
Some people don't care so much about that; they just plan never to come back.
Personally I'd probably pay back the amount I borrowed, and ignore the interest.

But yay I'll be going to Canada!

Why don't you just do what every other Kiwi does and catch a plane over here? It's p!ss easy getting dual citzenship (or whatever they call it these days), then get all your uni stuff on HECs, so you won't have to pay it back til your working

Name me an australian university which has an AI major and I'll start saving.

As it is I'm saving up to come to Melbourne for a holiday sometime. Maybe mid next year.

Surely you could just get a degree here, than transfer back there and do your specialist subjects ?

I don't know...my best mate in High school was Kiwi, and she transfered from Arts here to Arts/Law in Canterbury...

Yay, another drinking buddy

The degree /is/ the specialist subject, that's the problem.

I know I could transfer to Boston, Massacheusetts, but then I'd have to be able to spell Massacheusetts...
...or I could transfer to Cambridge, England... but then I'd have to live in England.

I'd have thought you'd be able to do it at Imperial College of Science and Technology in London as well
London would be better than Cambridge just

Do they have a specific AI stream?

And could I transfer the three years I've already done?

after Cambridge they're the best place to do science in the UK but given how hard it can be to get completed foriegn qualifications recognised I suspect transferring would be a bureaucratic nightmare and Britain makes a lot of money out of foriegn students so its not looking too viable an option financially anyway

Bugger.
I don't think I really have much of an option to finish my degree apart from to stay here and stick it out.
Not if I want to eat as well.

Ah well only another... two years or so ... to go.

I will scout around with th boy and his computer nerd buddies and see if I can find anything out

Thank you!

No worries son, just one of the many services we offer

...but it's hometime for little tanzens now, so all the best, and I will catch you later

What are the other services you offer? ...or shouldn't I ask?

Hm. Aparrantly I shouldn't have asked...

tra la la...
*attempting a change of topic....*

sooo..... hows everyone doing then? all your days going well?

Hm. Aparantly not.
I was going to use this post to rant more about the letter I got last night, about this year's application for a student loan (did I mention students are the only sector of society in this country who are forced to borrow money from the government at exorbatant interest rates, just to buy food?)

They won't even loan me the money I need to live. I'm almost certainly going to have to quit uni, because I can't think of any other way of surviving. Bass.

I'll come back if things turn more cheerful.