Price of knowledge a heavy burden

This article today from the Australian on the impact of HECS debts- HECS really seems to be at the forefront of people's minds at the moment which coincides with all the thousand of Year 12's about to start Uni.

Price of knowledge a heavy burden

Samantha Maiden
29 December 2006

WHEN Innes Bailey graduates from university next year at the age of 23, he will enter the workforce with a business degree and a debt of more than $30,000.

His degree will help him find a job, but he is unlikely to pay off the debt until he reaches his thirties. "It will probably be between $30,000 and $35,000," Mr Bailey said yesterday.

"There would be no hope of paying it upfront, even if my parents wanted to."

Under the HECS system, students can defer fee payments but must start to repay the debt through taxation once they earn more than $36,000 a year.

Mr Bailey's debt is higher than for a basic economics or arts degree because he started in one faculty after he finished school before moving to others.

"I did a year of arts, two years of design and two years of economics and finance," he said.

"I will be graduating in a business degree. I can only name one friend from high school who stuck with a degree and didn't change at least once.

"When I first found out how much it was, it didn't completely surprise me. I've been at university for five years. It's just something you have to deal with if you go to university."

Student leaders claim the number of graduates with large debts is set to grow as the 25 per cent rises in HECS fees from last year onwards flow through the system.

Queensland National Union of Students president Dan Doran said he knew many students with debts significantly higher than the $10,500 average.

"My HECS debt will be about $24,000," he said. "To be employable today, a lot of students are doing double degrees and they are costing more.

"It's a national disgrace that we are the only country to decrease spending on education as a percentage of gross domestic product."

Council of Australian Postgraduate Associations president Nigel Palmer said postgraduate students faced even larger debts.

"HECS is capped, but in the case of ... postgraduate degrees those universities can basically charge what the market will bear for them," Mr Palmer said.

"If people are already loaded up with significant HECS debts, it's a real disincentive to take on further postgraduate studies.

"There are fewer and fewer incentives to stay on and undertake research."



A few weeks ago Jenny Macklin, the then Labor Shadow Minister for Education was in Adelaide and spoke with a few of us on the issue of HECS and in particular how South Australians alone owe 800 million dollars in debt. This of course then leads into the argument of whether the current education system is 'worth it' or whether there should be significantly better conditions within Universities to show some of where exhorbitant fees are going. Its an issue to think about, what will your HECS debt be when you finish????

Rhi
xoxo

“Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world”. Nelson Mandela