The cost of free education
The Sydney Morning Herald posted an article a couple of days ago that focused on tax breaks at expense of students. With a Federal election looming, though no official date has been announced, all sorts of issues are being raised by the political parties in an attempt to win would-be supporters.
The one relating to public education, and the increasing cost of education in this country, is one close to my own heart.
Australia needs much more investment at all levels of education. The underinvestment in higher education has been offset by the best piece of social policy in the last 20 years: the HECS scheme, which allows students to defer fees until income is earned. This has substantially reduced the problem caused by Australia having among the highest student fees for public universities in the world.
However, while students can defer fees, they cannot defer poverty. They are struggling: caught between restricted earning capacity while studying and the massively increasing rents in most major cities, they are forming the core of the new urban poor. (SMH)
Having gone through the public education myself I know only too well what it’s like to be a student loaded up with debt. I only managed to completed clear my HECS (it’s not known as HELP) debt last year, five years after I graduated from university. I know many people who graduated around the same time who still have a while to go. I also know how much it has helped me get ahead, and though it wasn’t apparent at the time I actually did develop a lot of skills that have helped me get to where I am today. As a result I’m a better citizen and I make more informed and educated choices in life. That is the value of education.
Dear Mr Howard, how about low tuition costs and free health insurance for students?
That’s ludicrous right? Or is it?
Perhaps we could look to France as an example:
Another characteristic is low tuition costs. Since higher education is funded by the state, the fees are very low: the tuition varies from 150 € to 700 € depending on the university and the different levels of education (licence, master, doctorate). One can therefore get a Master’s degree (in 5 years) for about 750-3,500 €. Additionally, students from low-income families can apply for scholarships, paying nominal sums for tuition or textbooks, and even getting a monthly stipend. The tuition in public engineering schools is comparable to universities, albeit a little higher (around 700€). However it can reach 7000 € a year for private engineering schools, and some business schools, which are all private or partially private, charge up to 12000€ a year.
Health insurance for students is free (if they get a scholarship) until the age of 25, so only the living costs and books expenses have to be added. (source: Wiki)
We did have a free tertiary education system once, fees were introduced in 1986, and the HECS system in 1989.
I know, moving to a free education system would cost quite a bit wouldn’t it?
Of course it would, however I think it’s important to consider the return on investment (business/IT jargon right there!).
The cost of implementing ‘free university education’ will, of course, depend on precisely how the policy is specified. My aim has been to highlight some of the issues involved, and the scale of the endeavour. I have pointed to three dimensions that might be addressed: abolishing current fees (primarily HECS and PELS); increasing funding to enhance the quality of education and to increase student places; and increasing income support to students. Each of these would be a significant move in the direction of more accessible, high quality education. (Ben Spies-Butcher, Is free university education affordable?)
So Mr Howard, Mr Rudd, and whoever else is claiming that they’re representatives of the people – I think it’s about time that free (or affordable and debt-free) tertiary education be considered for the investment that it is, an investment in Australia’s future. I’d gladly pay more tax if I knew that it was contributing to a more educated Australia and our children. I’m sure I’m not alone either.
The best economic reform that Australia could introduce is the return of free tertiary education. The extension of this is that free education at all levels would be better, fairer, and have better results for society.
No other investment has better value. Despite what governments say, free education pays for itself.
Some people in government and public service who owe their careers to the benefits of free education are now denying that to our children.
Most people who took advantage of the opportunity for a free tertiary education used it to improve their lives and careers and to do things that improved society.
Why is it that the people who did not share these values are now making and enacting policies that prevent the present generation, and future generations, of children from having the same opportunities?
All Australians should challenge, question and hopefully refute the people who make flawed policy decisions that have adverse results for our children. The people who create and enforce these decisions had tertiary educations that were obviously wasted on them. They seem to regard an education that all of us paid for as their own special privilege.
All of us, especially parents of children who have been, or will be, robbed of the right to a free education, should protest, as often and visibly as possible, against the removal of the rights of our children.
Every opportunity to be educated, without financial conditions, to the level of which they are capable is the right of all of our children. Australia is an affluent country. We can afford to educate all our children and cannot afford not to do so.
David Kernaghan, Sale
Hear, hear!
Related article:
- The Age: The ‘fix’ that broke our tertiary system
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