The Commission of Audit ordered by the Federal Government has come down today with a number of recommendations that affect tertiary and other education. These include: 1) Decrease Commonwealth contribution to higher education costs from 59 per cent to 45 per cent and increase the student share from 41 to 55 per cent. 2) Partial or full deregulation of university fees. 3) Increase interest rates on student (HELP) debt. 4) Graduates repay HELP debt once they earn the minimum wage ($32,354) 5) Transfer all policy and funding responsibilities for schools to the states. 6) Provide funding in three, non-transferable pools for public, Catholic and independent schools. 7) Do not proceed with final two years of Gonski funding 8) Abolish all Commonwealth vocational education and training programs including support for apprentices. UQ Union is strongly opposed to the increasing of student debt and the increase of interest rates for students. UQ Union also believes that forcing graduates to repay HELP debts once they start earning the minimum wage is not fair to those in low-paying industries that may not receive the financial benefit of their degree for many years. Please comment your thoughts or concerns below. We should note that at this stage these are recommendations only and may not be Government policy.
Posted on: Thu, 01 May 2014 04:53:35 +0000
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