[irrationalidiom]

Australia is similar in the regard, except the Federal government covers part of the full course cost, the rest being covered by a CPI indexed loan (HECS) which needs to be paid back once employment income exceeds $38k per year (taken from tax refunds -- we have tax deducted every payday).

That said, a typical university student will accumulate $9000 a year of HECS debt.

And yet Universities continue to cry poor, cutting student services and teaching staff, despite increased revenues from full fee paying international students over the past decade.

I'm perplexed as to why this is.

Edit: Just found this: http://www.nteu.org.au/library/view/id/3828 -- RMIT University spent $8.2 million on 19 "senior executive and council members". That's ~$431k a head, or according to the Union "125 HEW 6 academic staff."

[adekok]

http://deltacostproject.org/resources/pdf/trends_in_spending...

Page 24:

> In all institutional groupings—public and private—tuition prices increased faster than education and general spending per student. This suggests that both public and private institutions are becoming more dependent on tuition as a source of general revenue—not just to pay for education and related expenses, but as a general subsidy for all functions, including research and service.

Page 33:

> The primary cause of tuition increases in public institutions is not increased spending, but rather cost shifting to replace losses in state appropriations and other revenues.

What would you rather have?

1) Low tuition subsidized by higher taxes when you're working

2) higher tuition but lower taxes later on

The market seems to have chosen (2). Whether or not taxes are actually lower is another question.

Personally, I think it's horrible to graduate with 80K+ in debt. To put it into perspective, my parents graduated with minimal debt. Their first debt was the purchase of a house, for about the same amount as student loans are now.

What would you rather have on graduation? Student debt, or no student debt and a house?

[irrationalidiom]

Government funding for student places has increased slightly over 10 years, and full fee income (private places) has increased massively.

See page 124: http://www.unimelb.edu.au/publications/docs/2012-annual-repo...