Australia’s government could save itself up to A$200 million (£105 million) a year by reforming tuition fees to make them fairer, according to modelling by the architect of the country’s widely emulated student loan scheme.
Meanwhile another study, by a former higher education policy chief in the federal civil service, argues that it would be fairer and more effective to charge every student the same.
The two papers, published within days of each other, have added to a chorus of demands for an overhaul of the Job-ready Graduates (JRG) scheme of tuition fees and teaching subsidies.
JRG magnified fees for many humanities subjects, imposing the largest tuition debts on graduates likely to have the least capacity to repay. The Australian Universities Accord recommended replacing the scheme with a fee scale based on projected lifetime earnings. The federal government agrees with the recommendation but is yet to implement it, citing cost.
A study published in the Australian Journal of Labour Economics, co-authored by loan scheme designer Bruce Chapman, argues that implementation could save Canberra money by improving debt repayment and trimming the “interest rate subsidies” – the proportion of the interest-free loans effectively borne by the government.
