~70% of Full-time University Undergraduates Worked an Average of 14.8 Hours a Week During Second Semester Last Year. (March 9, 2007)

Nicholson in The Australian

• The minimum voting age in Australia is 18.

• Most university undergraduates are 18 years of age or older.

• 700,000 Australian university students are among those revolutionising the university experience through a dramatic shift in income support.

• They spend less time on campus, skip more lectures and are running up an average private debt of $25,000 - on top of their government HECS loans.

• "A large proportion of students ... lacked adequate financial support and many were highly anxious about 'making ends meet' and the debts they were accumulating."

• About 70 per cent of full-time undergraduates were working an average of 14.8 hours a week during second semester last year.

• Almost half the students surveyed believed that work was having a detrimental effect on their studies as their private debt ratcheted up.

• The study reveals the proportion of students taking out private loans rose from 10.7 per cent in 2000 to 24.4 per cent last year.

• "I think they are not borrowing a lot more money but a lot more of the students are borrowing." -- University of Western Australia vice-chancellor Alan Robson

With a federal election just over a half-year away, off hand you wouldn't think this 'd be a vote winning scenario for the regime with "generation debt".

[Added March 10]

The Age reports: "Yes, I am concerned about that. Study and work should be in balance," Ms Bishop [federal Minister for Education, Science and Training] told ABC radio.

She defended the government's monetary support for students, saying it is among the most generous in the world.

"Public support is not designed to support a lifestyle. Public support ... that the government provides is to cover living expenses."

Ms Bishop said research had found students were not working any longer hours these days, but that they were earning more thanks to the tight labour market.

"They are working the same or similar hours, yet the earnings that they get for those similar hours have increased by 82 per cent," she said.

Apparently Ms Bishop isn't all that perturbed, but then neither was Marie Antoinette when the proletariat got restless.