Summary

This report, Living with a Student Loan, a profile of student loan debt and repayment, post-study income and going overseas, analyses the post-study incomes, progress to repayment, and travel overseas of two cohorts of student loan borrowers: those who last borrowed and studied in 1997, and those who last borrowed in 1994. It also includes a cross-sectional analysis of all people with a student loan at 31 March 2001, including leaving debt by qualification level for those that graduate and those that don't.

This report has been published in conjunction with a second report called Income of Student Loan Scheme Borrowers. That report analyses the incomes of those who used the Student Loan Scheme between 1997 and 2000. It looks at the income of people while they are studying, their income in their first year out of study and, for those who last borrowed and studied in 1997, their income three years after they left study.

These reports represent the first in-depth analytical reports using data from Statistics New Zealand's Integrated Dataset on Student Loan Scheme Borrowers. This dataset was first developed in 2002, in part, in response to criticisms of the lack of research available on the socio-economic and financial impacts of the Student Loan Scheme. The dataset combines data from Ministry of Education, Ministry of Social Development and Inland Revenue and provides rich new opportunities to analyse what happens to student loan scheme borrowers over time, during and after study.

More information on the Integrated Dataset on Student Loan Scheme Borrowers can be downloaded below.

Some of key findings from Living with a Student Loan:

• The higher the level of qualification studied, the higher the leaving debt, the higher the post-income study and the faster the progress to repayment.
• Students studying health leave study with more debt, but have the highest post-study income and have repaid more of their debt than most other students. Graduates in medicine were more likely to be overseas than other bachelors graduates, while nursing graduates were less likely to be overseas.
• While almost half of those who last borrowed and studied in 1997 had not reduced their debt by March 2001, almost half of those who last borrowed in 1994 had repaid at least three quarters of their debt.
• More Māori have a student loan debt than other groups, although the level of debt held is similar to other groups. The have the lowest post-study incomes and repay their loans more slowly than other groups. However, when adjusted by level of qualification studied and completion status, the income difference disappears.