Student Loans

Last Updated on Tuesday, 15 June 2010 11:06

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For many people, going on to tertiary study means applying for a student loan...

Although this may seem like a scary prospect, because it is so common the people at Studylink have made the process as painless as possible.

A student loan is of course designed to help you pay for your studies. There are three parts to the student loan that include the compulsory fees, course related costs and living costs (your course must be full-time or limited full-time to be able to get living costs).

There are a few criteria that you must meet to be considered for a student loan. These are:

You must be a New Zealand citizen, permanent resident or refugee.

You must be enrolled on a Tertiary Education Commission approved course.

The course must be full-time (or limited full-time with Studylink approval) or part-time and 32 weeks or longer.

If you would like to find out more about these criteria, and whether or not you are applicable to get the student loan, visit the Studylink website.

Some things you should know:

You need to take out a new loan each time you start a new course.

You must renew your student loan each year (which means contacting Studylink at least a couple of weeks before your course starts in order to be on the safe side).

There may be courses where Studylink can only loan a portion of the fees rather than the full amount charged by your education provider.

If you plan to study overseas, you will need complete an overseas study application and you need to complete a Student Loan application.

Use Sorted's online student calculator to organise your money.