Australian voters tend to reject US style education favouring more egalitarian systems where income does not determine access.
In the US, average student debt is USD $37,693 (public and private debt) taking an average of 20 years for individuals to repay. But, students often have a gap not fulfilled by loans.
For Australian domestic students, the cost of completing a bachelor degree is generally between $20,000 and $45,000, excluding some of the higher value courses. HECS-HELP loans are available for eligible students to cover the cost of tuition up to $121,844 for most degrees, and $174,998 for higher value degrees like medicine. The average higher education student debt in Australia is around $27,000 and on average takes just over 8 years to repay. Close to 3 million Australians have a student loan debt with debt totalling over $81 bn. Over 7 million have loans above $100,000.
Currently, student loans start to be paid back when an individual’s income reaches $54,435, with a repayment rate that scales according to income ranging from 0% to 10% when income reaches $159,664.
The Government has announced a series of changes to HECS-HELP including:
- Indexation rate calculation change to the lower of consumer price index (CPI) or wage price index (WPI) – currently CPI. Intended to be backdated to student loans on 1 June 2023, effectively removing the 7.1% spike that occurred in 2023.
- Increased minimum repayment threshold to $67,000 in 2025-26. The repayments will also be calculated on the income above the new $67,000 threshold rather than total annual income.
- 20% loan reduction for all study and training support loans before 1 June 2025 (around $16bn).
These changes are subject to the passage of legislation and are not yet law.
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