Some University degrees now cost about the same as a average Australian mortgage according to 2008 Good Universities Guide. As the average Australian mortgage is far more then $100,000 clearly the Prime Minister didn’t mean there wouldn’t be any higher than $100,000 when he said;
“The Government will not be introducing an American-style higher education system. There will be no $100,000 university fees under this Government.”
.Last year 60 courses cost more than $100,000. Maybe he was practicing for his next big election promise – low interest rates anyone ?
As for Howard’s successor , Costello seems quite happy to compare us to the USA ;
The Treasurer describes the present system as “generous” and has pointed out that in the United States, students forked out more than $100,000 and rely on banks to lend them the money.
The USA education system wasn’t good enough for Howard in 1999, but seems to suit Costello fine in 2007. As the USA features near the bottom of world education affordability and standards rankings personally I don’t think its good enough and doubt other students do either. If the treasurer and wannabe prime minister insists on comparing Australia to the USA he should remember that the USA government spends more on education than the Australian government. Though apparently not very efficiently.
The Howard Government has maintained that students only contribute one-quarter of their course costs. However in this proportion the government includes its own funding to universities unpaid HECS debts. Most students will pay this money back to the government making students’ contribution to the cost of their education , on average, 40 per cent. For law students, it’s 84 per cent.
In fact Law students sharing the top HEC’s rates with medicine, dentistry and veterinary science, often pay more than the actual cost of their degree. I doubt many Law students find that possibility very surprising, after all anyone seen the Legal equivalent of high-tech medical equipment in a law school ? Makes me wonder where my yearly $8333 is going.
Labor has promised to phase out domestic full-fee degrees at public Universities commencing 1 January 2009 in order to ensure ” access for all young Australian students based on merit, rather than financial mean” . This raises the question how Labor will compensate financially stricken universities for the lost student revenue.
Labor’s new education spokesman Stephen Smith says only that “HECS relief” would be done in a “financially responsible way”, presumably by taking money from other programs or from a budget surplus.
Hopefully ones of those other program won’t be public health. I doubt even Peter Costello would willingly compare the Australian health system to the USA one.
More information
STEPHEN SMITH – MEDIA RELEASE – UNI DEGREE COSTS AN AVERAGE AUSTRALIAN MORTGAGE – 14 AUGUST 2007
