For first-time students moving to a new city, the application hold-up has caused unnecessary stress.
A new Ara student, who has chosen to remain anonymous, has dealt with this firsthand. She did not receive any financial support to cover course fees until a month and a half into her studies.
She says it came down to a lack of communication from StudyLink.
“This is all new to me.
“They said I didn’t need to tell them anything more…because I’d given them my contract back, my bank info, and I just hadn’t heard back.”
She says while she wasn’t hearing from StudyLink, she was also receiving invoices from Ara for unpaid course fees.
“What did annoy me was Ara was sending me course invoices…and I was like 'I can’t really pay it right now because Study Link hasn’t replied'."
She was eventually given more time to pay but was encouraged to pay 'sooner rather than later'.
The student says she continued to send emails and sit on hold with StudyLink for hours, but still didn’t hear an explanation as to why it was taking so long.
It took two rounds of seeking help from Ara student services before anything changed.
The Ministry of Social Development Centralised Services Manager, Paula Ratahi-O’Neill - who manages StudyLink - told Metro News they hadn't prepared for this many applications.
"It's difficult to predict exact numbers in advance, and we received more applications than we had anticipated.
"While this increased volume took time to process, by moving quickly to increase Studylink’s resources we were able to process individual applications faster this year than previously."
Ratahi-O’Neill says they will work to get the remaining applications finalised.
