@*crikey*mate* wrote:
no, I didn't know, can you show me where i can learn about this please?
SMH has plenty on it. But Honi Soit has just posted this:
Higher Education: “We are a nation of lifters, not learners”
The Budget will force massive changes upon higher education providers and students, with most reforms set to kick in in 2016.
In line with recommendations made by the Kemp-Norton review, universities will be able to determine the cost of the degrees they offer from July 2016.
“Some course fees may rise and some fall,” said Hockey in his budget address.
This comes despite the Commission of Audit conceding “uncapping university fees could lead to very large fee increases”.
“While universities are currently able to set student contributions below the maximum level, almost no universities have taken up that opportunity,” the Commission found.
The Bradley Review of Higher Education released in 2008 further suggested that “prices at [more established universities] would rise very sharply” due to an assortment of factors including reputational status and locational advantages. The Commission of Audit also noted that, when the United Kingdom lifted the maximum price of tuition by 300 per cent, all tertiary institutions took on the highest possible fees.
In addition to the likelihood of a real fee increase, the proportion paid by students is set to rise, on average, by 20 per cent.
Currently, students pay approximately 41 per cent of the total price of their degrees. Changes introduced in the federal budget will see students pay 61 per cent. This fee increase is 6 per cent higher than was recommended by the Commission of Audit.
Revenue raised by these savings has been slated to pay for the expansion of the demand-driven system, which will see the creation of Commonwealth Supported Places for higher education diplomas, advanced diplomas and associated degree courses.
To counteract the effect these fee hikes would have on access to education, the Coalition will require universities to redirect 20 per cent of additional revenue raised, to Commonwealth Scholarship schemes (CSS), which will aim to increase the participation of low socioeconomic students.
“One dollar out of every five dollars in additional tuition revenue will be used to fund scholarships to those from disadvantaged backgrounds”, said Hockey.
Significantly, revenue for this fund is to be exclusively drawn from the difference in price of degrees under the current system and the new, deregulated system. If, for instance, a university made $200,000 from fees in the current system and $300,000 under the deregulated system, $20,000 of this difference would be placed in the university’s scholarship scheme.
The determination of low SES eligibility, however, remains the ambit of individual institutions, a Treasury spokesperson told Honi. The Government would merely provide “guidance” for the operation of these schemes.
A report compiled by the Melbourne University’s Centre for the Study of Higher Education in 2008 further noted that “scholarships, bursaries and fee remissions [were] not the entire solution to increasing access,” citing complementing factors such as the insufficient provision of Youth Allowance.
In 2012, only 8.64 per cent of students enrolled at Sydney University came from low SES backgrounds, compared to the national average of 15.7 per cent. In the same year, less than 10 per cent of University of New South Wales students, and less than 5 per cent of students from the Australian National University came from low SES backgrounds.
Changes to the Higher Education Loan Programme (HELP) scheme have also been introduced. Currently, the interest rate on HELP loans is fixed to inflation. Under the changes, the interest rate will be tied to the cost of federal borrowings, equivalent to the yields on ten-year bonds issued by the Government. This rate remains strictly higher than the rate of inflation, but will be capped at 6 per cent.
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