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The Australian Universities Accord report has been released with reform to the HECS-HELP scheme among the significant changes it has suggested.
The findings of the report, chaired by former NSW chief scientist Mary O’Kane, were announced on Sunday, containing 47 recommendations and targets to reform higher education in Australia.
Major changes flagged for the scheme include reducing upfront repayments for people on lower incomes as well as reviewing bank lending practices to ensure banks don’t treat HELP loans in a way “that unduly limits peoples’ borrowing capacity for home loans.”
Indexation will also be investigated after causing a stir last year when taxpayers were hit with a bill rather than a repayment at tax time.
It has also been recommended that the HELP indexation rate is adjusted to be tied in with the wage price index instead of the consumer price index.
Education minister Jason Clare said while the HECS scheme has been a huge contributor to increasing the percentage of the Australian workforce to obtain a university degree, it needs to be “fairer and simpler” according to the report.
“Bruce Chapman, the architect of HECS has helped the panel with a recommendation which says there are ways to reduce upfront payments for people on lower incomes … for someone on an income of $75,000 would pay about $1000 less every year,” Mr Clare told ABC’s Insiders on Sunday.
“That is something that could provide people with immediate cost-of-living benefit once they finish uni and are in the workforce.”
The minister said the government would be responding to the Accord in the coming weeks and were preparing to get started “to build the foundations for long-term reform” ahead of the May budget.
The report has recommended the ambitious goal of increasing the number of Australians in the workforce, who have completed tertiary education, from the current rate of 60 per cent to 80 per cent by 2050.
“The Accord says that in the years ahead, we will need 80 per cent of the workforce to not just finish high school, we will need them to finish TAFE or university as well,” Mr Clare said in a statement.
“The Accord will help to drive this change. It will help us build a better and fairer education system where no one is held back, and no one is left behind.
“This is a plan not for one budget, but a blueprint for the next decade and beyond.”
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