KEY POINTS:
The number of students with loans reached an all time high in 2006, Statistics New Zealand data released yesterday shows.
The Statistics New Zealand figures - Student Loans and Allowances 2006 - showed the number of students borrowing under the Student Loan Scheme had increased by eight per cent from 2005 to 2006.
The number of students who received an allowance in 2006 increased for the first time since 2002, but the number of students who only received an allowance - not a loan as well - declined.
In 2006, about seven in every 10 borrowers received an allowance, Statistics New Zealand said.
Auckland University Students Association president David Do said the statistics confirmed that student debt was continuing to skyrocket.
He said the figures showed the number of students who received only a student loan had increased.
Mr Do said this suggested they were not eligible for an allowance and thus had to borrow to live.
The figures showed the average student loan leaving debt reached a high of $15,590 in 2005, up six per cent from $14,730 in 2004.
Mr Do said this continued the upward trend in average student loan leaving debt since 1992.
The data also showed that more females had a student loan compared with males.
However, when men did have a student loan they borrowed more.
- NZPA
