campusreview. com. au policy & reform
If the government is seeking a good home for the money it recovers in overseas debts, it could do worse than extending a program that already helps improve participation in higher education.
By Jan Thomas
Education minister Christopher Pyne’ s announced plan to recover HECS-HELP debt from Aussies living abroad will, it’ s hoped, make repayments more equitable for all Australians who have earned a university degree.
The government has long supported policies to help prospective higher education students overcome financial obstacles to study. Our goals are similar to those in other countries: provide a skilled workforce; promote social mobility; support personal development; and pursue knowledge for its own sake.
To some extent, we have become victims of our own success. The ability to deliver a quality higher education envied by many has made our graduates highly employable at overseas businesses, companies, corporations and establishments that lure our students offshore.
With their highly credentialed degrees and the promise of experiences and lifestyles not often found in Australia, it’ s little wonder thousands of our alumni head overseas to work. Once they go, they don’ t have to complete an Australian tax return, so they avoid having to pay back their loan.
Estimates suggest HELP contributes more than $ 6 billion a year to finance students’ tertiary education and the federal government takes a much more tempered approach to getting that money back than other lending institutions. The government expects more than $ 70 billion in unpaid university student loans before the decade is out.
It’ s hoped the move to haul back the debt will go some way to alleviating the shortfall universities are facing in funding cutbacks. However, retrofitting payments for the Australian higher education loan program may take some doing.
It’ s easy to look abroad and see the golden goose but getting it is not going to be easy. The cost of the proposal is yet to be announced but Pyne’ s office is telling us the government expects to recover more than $ 140 million over the next 10 years. That $ 14 million a year return on investment may well be eroded implementing the scheme.
The main question, though, is how the government might best use any recovered debt to bolster higher education programs.
The minister’ s statement did not elaborate on what and where any recovered debt might go towards. The government might well look at reinstating the $ 5 million it announced it was taking from the Higher Education Participation Program( HEPP) pool in federal Budget 2015.
It’ s disappointing that the government has looked to reduce funding to an area that has helped Australians from disadvantaged backgrounds who have the ability to study at university get the opportunity to do so and succeed. For all intents and purposes, HEPP is working well. I know that in all universities across Australia, a range of diverse and excellent programs continues to be rolled out under HEPP.
At USQ, with HEPP, we have embedded Indigenous education programs into mainstream teaching, taken non-English speaking students through a range of interactive programs so they can take on the challenges of a university degree, engaged with rural and remote communities building pride and raising aspirations for lifelong learning, introduced student experience days for those first-in-family to consider a university education and dispelled the myth that those from low-SES regions have little to contribute to being an Australian.
Gifted students from remote parts of the country who ordinarily had little chance to extend themselves now regularly come on campus to widen their experiences and meet like-minded students and families. Online career guidance toolkits, creative thinking workshops for disadvantaged students and outreach programs that break down the cultural and social barriers to education are all part of the mix HEPP funding has made happen as well.
At last count, several hundred schools from rural, remote and isolated communities have shared in our HEPP program, with many thousands of students taking advantage of activities that have inspired, enthused, motivated and encouraged them to look to a future where education is the key to success. One of our greatest wins has been our work providing refugees with a new hope for their future and giving 617 incarcerated students a first chance at study as they aim for rehabilitation and a better life.
These programs don’ t just happen. They come from the government support that has been provided through HEPP and the commitment and obligation universities have made to their communities to instil the notion that anything is possible. Everyone is entitled to access a university education if that is something they choose to do. However, for some, the pathway to an education is not always easy.
Whilst the government might grapple with how it will invest its recovered millions, perhaps the answer is as close as what it is doing now. Supporting HEPP with changes that will assist families in accessing education and university studies is a positive outcome and will strengthen the nation’ s economy.
We live in a time when more focused policy is needed. Government must be willing to support the vulnerable and disadvantaged and everyone in society who benefits from a university education must step up to be counted.
We have an opportunity to make things better. Injecting recovered overseas debt into HEPP could benefit Australia over the decades to come and futureproof the ambitions, dreams and hopes of many who would otherwise never believe they’ d get a university education. n
Professor Jan Thomas is vice-chancellor of the University of Southern Queensland.
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