I was under the impression that individuals with PR could access HECS too.

Sinc, I was under that impression too. There used to be schemes where students would start a course as a fee-payer, then gain Permanent Residence (PR) and have the government pay the remainder of the course. A sweet deal.

However on doing a quick Google, I see there was some sort of crack down, and that now international students are only eligible for HELP, and only for so-called “bridging study.”

It sounds like another of the rorts the government decided to fix before the papers found out about it.

People should be required to repay something towards their HECS debt out of any income they earn, no matter how little. Alternatively, they should be required to take out a commercial loan to pay their fees.

As it stands, the system is an incentive for worthless degree-factories to enrol anyone and everyone, and for students to find ways to keep their incomes below the threshhold or leave the country for better paying jobs.

The percentage in the table is the amount students pay through Hecs. the remainder is paid for by government.

the reason i know this is i was just looking at engineering degrees that have total help loans of $30k but for which the univerdity recieves $102k in funding.

I was under the impression that individuals with PR could access HECS too

According to the website and what I’ve read, these are the people who are eligible for HECS-HELP

– be studying in a Commonwealth supported place;
– be an Australian citizen or permanent humanitarian visa holder;
– enrol with a provider in each unit, by the census date;
– read the Information for Commonwealth supported students and HECS-HELP booklet; and
– submit a valid Request for Commonwealth support and HECS-HELP form by the census date (or earlier administrative date) to your provider.

International students don’t get any assistance

International students are not eligible to access a Higher Education Loan Program (HELP) loan for their study, and must pay the overseas student fees charged by their provider.

Nothing Orwellian about it, really.

I should stress that it is a theoretical term.

tgs, ‘socially optimal’ sounds suitably Orwellian or newspeakish talk for “sufficient control of the political economy”.

It is an economics term – used when one is making the distinction between social and private costs, for example due to the presence of externalities.

The socially optimal level of production of a good or service is one where the marginal social cost is equal to the marginal social benefit.

Nothing Orwellian about it, really.

And the problem of too many degrees is set to worsen, as a result of government policy, to increase the numbers at university! Do we really need registry staff with arts degrees?

Driftforge:

I didn’t say fund health research to the exclusion of all other, just change the balance!

I was under the impression that individuals with PR could access HECS too.

Well they can get the dole so I can’t see why not.