Greens oppose increase in student fees

The Greens higher education spokeswoman Senator Lee Rhiannon said her party would oppose the push by the University of NSW vice-chancellor and chairman of the Group of Eight, Professor Fred Hilmer, to give universities the power to set course fees.

In an opinion piece on the university website, Hilmer said fee deregulation should not continue to be overlooked as revenue is failing to keep pace with costs, as evidenced by the number of universities now engaged in redundancy programs in an effort to reduce spending.