Will a university degree cost a second mortgage under Abbott?

By Jeannie Rea. “The real reason for Tony Abbott’s silence on university funding in this election is because he does not want to reveal his real agenda – to increase the cost of going to universities for Australian students and their families,” Jeannie Rea, National President NTEU said today.
“In the absence of any definitive policy announcements on funding, the Australian public can only work out the Coalition’s higher education policy from its track record and the few recent statements.
“If, as the Coalition has said on numerous occasions, our public universities are grossly underfunded but that the government is not in a position to boost its investment, then the only conclusion you can draw is that students will have to pay more under an Abbott government.”
Rea said that voters need to remember that one of the first policy announcements of the Howard government when elected in 1996 was to slash university operating grants by five percent and double average HECS fees through the introduction of a three-tier HECS. More...