University students could get cost of living relief in the federal budget, with the education minister considering changes to HECS repayments and unpaid placements.
The biggest review of universities in decades has recommended sweeping changes to better financially support students and get more people from low-income backgrounds into uni.
Federal Education Minister Jason Clare has indicated he’s open to changing the way HECS repayments are calculated as soon as the May budget, putting more money in the pockets of graduates on lower incomes.
The government is yet to respond to the accord, and will spend months considering its wideranging recommendations.
For most local undergraduate and coursework postgraduates (ie, not PhD students) the costs of university education are shared between the student and the federal government.
The idea underpinning the scheme is that having university-educated citizens not only has benefits for the students themselves but also for the Australian community more widely.
HECS allows students to defer paying their portion of the cost until they earn a certain salary, currently $51,550 a year.
Nine in 10 undergraduate university students complete their degree with a HECS debt and the more they earn, the more they pay off their debt.
But the recent Australian Universities Accord review found while the system was world-leading, it could be working much better.
What’s been recommended
Basing student payments on projected lifetime earnings
- Changing repayment rates to reduce disincentives to work
- Changing the timing of indexation for loans to reduce the impact of inflation
- Ensuring indexation doesn’t go higher than wage growth
- Making more government-sponsored spots available in postgraduate study in areas of skills shortage
