Mike's Minute: Good or bad story at university?

What's in the numbers? 

Well-known economist Shamubeel Eaqub has crunched a few figures. It turns out if you want to see it, being a student at university is a miserable experience. 

And boy does the media love a story of misery. Being a student is pricier than ever, they tell us. "Does it pay off?" was your headline. 

The answer, and this isn't from the story, it's from me, is yes. 

Yes, if you have a plan. Yes, if you are careful. Yes, if you are driven in a specific direction professionally. 

Our most recent graduate at our house is fully immersed in her first job and loving it. She owes a shed load of dough, but wouldn’t for a minute have it any other way. 

But back to the numbers. All we really learn, when you compare the cost of stuff from Shamubeel 20 years ago versus the cost of stuff now, is the cost of stuff has gone up. That's got little to do with university and a lot to do with life because all our bills have gone up. 

Student support has gone up 86% but essentials have gone up 220%. In 2005 the allowance was $160 while essentials were $140 and you had $20 left over. 

These days you're in the red to the tune of eight bucks, which I wouldn’t actually have thought was that bad. 

University fees have gone up 113%. You might want to ask why. 

But here is a reality check: the story tells us 35,000 students received some form of assistance. That number on the last quarter is up 5%. 

But the amount they get is down 3%. So more get money, but not as much. Surely that’s good? 

But here is the real number: how many students are there? ChatGPT tells me almost 400,000, so less than 10% get any assistance at all. 90% don’t need help. Isn't that the real story? 

Too many stories and too many headlines are about what's wrong, not what's right, who is doing badly, not who is doing fine. 

You can play with numbers forever. Palmerston North rents have gone up more than Auckland rents, so it's not as cheap to be at Massey as it once was, and so it goes. 

But the big picture, the real story, surely is what you got out of university. What did the qualification do for you? 

If it changed your life, set you on a path, set you up, got you a career and opened the doors then the bill is immaterial. 

Like life, university is how you see it. Like life, the choices are yours. 

So does it pay off? Guess what, if you want it to, you are already there. 

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