Treasurer Jim Chalmers on Monday said the upcoming May 14 budget will consider providing relief for university student financial issues such as unpaid placements and disproportionately increasing HECS-HELP debts. Latest inflation numbers released on Wednesday say HECS repayments will increase ...

A HECS-HELP petition that urges the education minister to change the way HECS is indexed has gained 200,000 signatures in just 12 days. Started by Kooyong Independent MP Dr Monique Ryan on March 14, the petition now has 240,000 signatures, ...

Labor has pressed ahead in its redesign of the Job-ready graduates scheme, reversing fee hikes for honours students and introducing a new program to attract medical professionals into remote hospitals. Federal education minister Jason Clare introduced two new amendments to ...

Why do ten per cent of Australian students choose non-government (independent) institutions of higher education in preference to universities? With over 140,000 students enrolled in approximately 120 independent higher education institutions, this sector saves the Australian taxpayer the cost of ...

The architect of Australia’s original Higher Education Contribution Scheme – known as HECS – is calling on the government to roll out income and revenue-based loans to soften a likely world recession. Australia National University leading economist Professor Bruce Chapman ...

The federal government has scrapped plans to place a "lifetime cap" on student loans, but has been granted support from the lower house to reduce the repayment threshold. Legislation to lower the repayment threshold from $55,000 to $45,000 has been ...

When Jacinda Ardern became New Zealand's Prime Minister in October last year, many were surprised because of her youth, inexperience and femininity. Staunchly Labour, she moved quickly to enact her 'progressive, anti-capitalist' agenda. Among her reforms was making all forms of higher education ...

Today, in UTS' 'brown paper bag', a symposium on advancing the public benefit of universities took place. Resisting commercialisation The need for universities to focus on research and education – not marketing – was a major topic. Professor Raewyn Connell of USYD ...

The Grattan Institute report that suggests we should consider pay-your-own-way degrees might work if we were all financially secure, but we aren’t. I’ve copped a little bit of stick over comments I made last week regarding the Grattan Institute’s report ...

The number of students in hoc to the federal government – and the debt – has never been higher. Australian university student HECS-HELP debt is the highest in history, currently more than $23 billion. The average debt per student is ...