“Fair to me, fair to us, or fair to you?” Unresolved conflict between government and graduates over Australia’s tertiary education loans

ABSTRACT

Australia adopted income-contingent government loans for tertiary students 30 years ago, aiming to promote greater access and equity in higher education, as repayments were required only when income exceeded a threshold. Why then does the scheme still cause dissension and with what consequences for government? We analyse qualitative and quantitative survey data to answer this question. Contrary to the government’s universal conception of fairness, graduates keenly perceive unfairness relative to their peers. Our results indicate that perceptions of unfair treatment create enduring difficulties for governments in securing cooperation from their citizens.

KEYWORDS:

• Higher education loans
• income contingent loans
• justice
• fairness
• public policy

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. The proportion contributed by students varies between different degrees and across different iterations of the program, with an average of about 40%, according to a 2017 Australian Broadcasting Commission Factcheck. (https://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-06-14/fact-check-do-taxpayers-subsid)

2. HECS-HELP (Higher Education Loans Programme) and FEE-HELP

3. VET FEE-HELP initially, now VET Student Loan

4. https://www.ato.gov.au/Rates/HELP,-TSL-and-SFSS-repayment-thresholds-and-rates/(accessed 19/11/2019)

5. https://www.education.gov.au/higher-education-0 (accessed 19/11/2019)

6. The initial discount for upfront fee payment of 15% was increased in 1993 to 25%. In 1995 a voluntary repayment bonus was introduced to encourage quicker loan repayment.

7. See http://ctsi.org.au/research/hecs.html for project description, questionnaire and descriptive data