More Australian PSE students struggling to make ends meet

More Australians are attending university than at any time in the past 150 years, but most now struggle to live on incomes that are below the poverty line while their levels of debt have soared by almost 30% in the past 6 years, according to a new report by Universities Australia. The report, which is based on a survey of nearly 12,000 students across the university sector, found that 80% of full-time undergraduates work an average of 16 hours a week; a third regularly miss classes because of their jobs; and 17% said they often went without food or other necessities. Half the students said the demands of their jobs negatively affected their performance at university – a 10% increase since the previous report on student finances was released in 2006. Chronicle of Higher Education