With HELP debt likely to increase to A$75 billion in 2020, research from the US shows offering students financial literacy courses may be a gentler way to combat student debt.
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Articles on HECS
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We shouldn't take the government’s own budgetary savings rationale at face value.
After almost a decade of failed processes to reform the current funding system, the government must produce a revised system that improves the quality of outcomes for students in all courses.
Students currently pay higher fees for courses that lead to jobs with typically higher wages. But not all students find, or want, a job in their area of study. Should all students then pay the same amount for their university degree?
Students rated their financial literacy quite low, which means many students who have managed to secure a place at university don’t believe they understand about debt.
The HECS revolution remains seriously incomplete because it does not extend to many parts of the vocational education and training sector - which still suffers from the scourge, hostility and unfairness of upfront fees.
A heavy focus of Bill Shorten's budget reply speech was preparing for the future with science, technology, engineering and mathematics education. While this focus is a step in the right direction, the policies probably aren't the right way to go about it.
Overseas debtors should have to repay their student loans, but it won't recoup as much as repayments from deceased estates.
Unpaid HELP debts are a problem, while super contributions may be lost. Should students use super to repay HELP?
It seems the desired effect of Pyne's uni reforms is to stratify the system, making the top unis better and the middle-tier unis worse. A progressive tax would allow him to achieve this goal.
There continues to be a lot of discussion about the future of tertiary education in Australia. Should fees be deregulated, places capped, interest on student loans charged at the bond rate? And on, and…
The release of the 1988-89 cabinet documents show that the Hawke government’s plans for Australian higher education were in some ways as radical as the policies that Education Minister Christopher Pyne…
A decade of strong mining revenue growth has seen workers disproportionately located in the “mining states” of Queensland and Western Australia. With mining investment now waning, workers drawn by in the…
I love the free market. It means my morning cup of coffee costs roughly the same at almost all the coffee shops near campus. The free market is however ruthlessly efficient, even if it is largely responsible…
Our treasurer Joe Hockey is looking to cut the budget and where possible create a user-pays approach to spending. Universities and their graduates are an obvious target. In Australia we have the quite…
A Grattan Institute report I co-authored highlights student debt costs, with the finding that the government could save $800 million a year by retrieving unpaid debts from deceased estates and students…
The cost of the national student loan debt held by the federal government has gathered pace to pop the A$30 billion mark, perpetuating rumours that a debt sale could be on the cards. Should that happen…
After some speculation, this week education minister Christopher Pyne has said the Coalition has no plans to increase university fees. His comments come after much debate over selling the HELP – formerly…
According to the budget papers, Australian students and former students could owe the government more than $40 billion in unpaid Higher Education Loan Program debt by 2017. Unsurprisingly, HELP, formerly…
Top contributors
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Higher Education Program Director, Grattan Institute
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Director, Policy Impact, Crawford School of Public Policy, Australian National University
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ARC Laureate Fellow, Swinburne University of Technology., Swinburne University of Technology
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Adjunct professor, RMIT University
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Senior Lecturer, Melbourne Centre for the Study of Higher Education, University of Melbourne
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Senior Lecturer in Economy and Society, Department of Sociology, Macquarie University
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Lecturer in Political Economy, University of Sydney
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Honorary Senior Fellow, Centre for Vocational and Educational Policy, University of Melbourne
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Executive Director, IRU, La Trobe University
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Associate Professor in Language, Literacy and TESL, University of Canberra
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Vice Chancellor's Fellow at Victoria University and Adjunct Professor of Economics, Victoria University
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Vice-Chancellor and President, CQUniversity Australia
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Professor of Economics, UNSW
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Associate Professor of Economics, University of Technology Sydney
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Associate Professor, Research School of Finance, Actuarial Studies & Statistics, Australian National University
