Loans for Uni fees - not the way to improve participation and quality
24 April 2001
The National Tertiary Education Union, representing staff in Australian universities, has expressed deep concern about a leaked Budget document that endorses the extension of ` HECS-style loan scheme\' to another category of fee-paying student.
The document reports a decision by the Expenditure Review Committee to extend `HECS-style loans\' to overseas-trained professionals who pay up-front fees for bridging courses in Australian universities. This follows the creation of a similar scheme for fee-paying postgraduate students, to come into effect in 2002.
The document acknowledges that this could be `controversial\', given that domestic fee-paying undergraduates don\'t have access to a loans scheme, but states that `extending HECS-loans to the latter group would also be politically sensitive at this time, and we understand a proposal to do so has been dropped. \'
NTEU President Carolyn Allport said that the creation of loans schemes for fee-paying students was a step towards fee deregulation for all students, and did nothing to address legitimate public concern about the impact of deregulation on the quality and accessibility of higher education.
`There is a big difference between HECS and the Government\'s proposed `HECS-style loan\'. HECS represents a loan of a fixed portion of a student\'s fees, with the balance being met by the Commonwealth. A `HECS-style loan\' as it is intended to apply to postgraduates is a loan for the full cost of a course where the market sets the price. There is no public investment: it is a market mechanism accessible by customers in a deregulated fee-charging environment. In New Zealand, where a similar scheme applies for all students, student debt is now over $3billion, and was a significant issue in the last NZ election.\'
Dr Allport said that it reflected the Government\'s commitment to the entrenchment of a fee-paying environment in higher education, despite the Prime Minister\'s protestations to the contrary.
`In his 1999 Cabinet submission, David Kemp said he wanted to allow universities to charge whatever fees they wanted, and to establish a HECS-style loans scheme,\' she said. `Because of widespread public opposition to that proposal, the Government rejected it. But this document suggests that the Government is now taking a piecemeal approach to achieve the same outcome.\'
`What we need is increased public investment in higher education places, and infrastructure support for a quality education and research environment. We can\'t simply shift the burden of funding to students without recognising the impact that increased fees and debt has on participation.\'