What will your Qualification Cost?
Choosing to do a certificate or a doctorate is a $46,000 dollar decision figures released by the Aotearoa Tertiary
Students Association (ATSA) show. Research released last week in to the post study impact of student loans on women ATSA
has calculated indicative costs by qualification with staggering results.
Costs by General qualification are:
Certificate $6,400
Undergrad Diploma $14,712
Bachelor Degree $23,004
Post Grad Cert/Diploma $28,560
Honours $31,360
Masters $37,538
PhD $52,500
Calculations are based on borrowing half the available course costs and two thirds of the weekly living costs. Tuition
alone for a bachelor Degree is $10,704 at the lower end of the market.
“ATSA’s figures are indicative, and there is the bigger cost of dealing with all the debt after study which has been
ignored,” said Julie Pettett, President of ATSA. “Encouraging your son or daughter to be a designer or computer wiz, is
more than a three or four year commitment, it is ten years to life.
“Post study debt of Student loans, overdrafts, credit cards, bills and personal loans are too large for people to
ignore,” Says Pettett they affect decisions people make on; further study, buying assets, when and if to start a
family.”
“A higher education should improve your earning potential, but many people are unaware of the cost of that higher
education,” said Pettett. “We encourage our youth into education; push people to up skill with no real information on
the total costs.”
“ATSA is looking to the government to further investigate the post study affect of the Student Loans Scheme.”