The highest student loan debt is now $230,000, according to the latest student loan scheme quarterly report released by the Inland Revenue Department.
The number of borrowers who owe debts through the student loan scheme is 425,575 and more than half of all loans are now over $10,000.
New Zealand University Students
Association co-president Fleur Fitzsimons said the figures showed not only a "massive increase" in the biggest debt, but also that the proportion of borrowers with bigger debts was continuing to grow.
"Government are hardly meeting their obligations to students with debts so mammoth it would take a first division Lotto win to repay them," she said.
Changes to the loan scheme had failed to deal with student debt and many borrowers had massive debts they would spend decades trying to repay, Ms Fitzsimons said.
"The government need to contain the spiralling levels of student debt by introducing a living allowance for all students in next weeks budget and by reducing student fees."
- NZPA
