Arts/science student Amy Constable cannot imagine how she would have ended up at the Australian National University had she not had access to a Student Start-up Scholarship, which provides her with $1025 a semester.
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Ms Constable, 22, was one of a small group of ANU students who spent their lunch hour on Wednesday debating how universities should respond to federal government funding cuts announced at the weekend that will have $2.3 billion stripped from the university sector and ploughed into the Gonski school funding reforms.
Part of the cuts includes saving $1.2 billion by transferring the start-up scholarship into a loan - repayable through the Higher Education Contribution Scheme.
Ms Constable left Ballarat for Canberra three years ago, having spent a year working full-time after year 12 to support herself through university and qualify for Youth Allowance.
''I receive no financial support from my family and as everyone knows, rent in Canberra is really expensive,'' she said.
The scholarship is worth about $8500 over the term of Ms Constable's degree - constituting about a quarter of her HECS debt.
The policy will only affect students coming into the scheme from 2014.
''Knowing I was going to receive this level of government support did have an impact on my options for going to university and I had my heart set on coming to Canberra,'' Ms Constable said. ''But if I had had to face paying back the scholarship in addition to my HECS debt I think it would have made the transition a lot more stressful. And I worry that it might potentially put future students off the idea of university study.''
Ms Constable said it had been ''a real shock to me to find out how much the government wants to cut from universities. It is pretty disheartening for those of us who are part-way through their degrees.''
She also believed the changes to the start-up scholarship would disadvantage students who needed the most support to attend university as the scheme was specifically targeted to low-income students.
''I struggle to see how this is fair,'' she said.
But she was also disappointed to see only about 70 students attend the forum on the cuts on Wednesday.
''I don't think it is that we don't care. I just wonder whether it hasn't been advertised widely enough - it seems to be more a social media campaign.''
ANU Students Association president Aleks Sladojevics said it had been a good turnout with students voting to march on the office of member for Fraser Andrew Leigh on May 1.
''ANU students feel the need to send a strong message to both the government and the university that these cuts should not impact on the quality of our education, tutorial sizes, teaching quality or resources,'' Ms Sladojevics said.
The National Tertiary Education Union, meanwhile, will hold a national meeting on Friday to discuss potential industrial action and a national campaign day protesting the cuts on May 14 - the day of the federal budget.
