Australia’s academy faces day of reckoning over student loans

Whoever wins the next election, uncapped enrolments and a big student loan book must be addressed, say observers. When the Australian government declined in January to implement recommended increases in teaching funding, or to permit the franchising of a university’s degrees, some observers perceived a growing nervousness about the cost of the country’s uncapped higher education system.
Some believe the cost of the loans system could prompt a future government - particularly one from the coalition grouping of right-of-centre parties - to reintroduce the cap on student numbers.
The removal of caps on undergraduate numbers was recommended in a 2008 Review of Australian Higher Education, chaired by former University of South Australia vice-chancellor Denise Bradley, to boost skill levels in the Australian workforce. Read more...