Month: August 2017

Some students could lose FEE-HELP by accident or no fault of their own

Andrew NortonLeave a comment

In supporting the government’s Education Legislation Amendment (Provider Integrity and Other Measures) Bill 2017 in the House of Representatives yesterday, shadow universities assistant minister Terri Butler said ‘Labor supports greater protection for students, particularly those accessing the FEE-HELP system’.

The provider integrity bill would put some extra constraints on the marketing activities of non-university higher education providers (NUHEPs), whose domestic students typically use FEE-HELP (because they are denied access to the Commonwealth supported places that would let them use HECS-HELP).

But the provider integrity bill also exposes NUHEP students to new risks, and greater risks than students in the university system.

If a student in a public university fails most of their first year subjects, they will probably be sent to their institution’s unsatisfactory progress committee. But whether they continue with their studies will be an academic decision that can take a holistic view of the student’s circumstances.

Under the provider integrity bill, a NUHEP student using FEE-HELP – there were 46,000 of them in 2015, although students enrolled before 1 January 2018 will be grandfathered – will lose FEE-HELP eligibility if they fail too many subjects, and have to pay upfront fees unless they can demonstrate that there were special circumstances that were beyond their control, did not have their full impact until after the census date at which they incurred their HELP debt, and made it impractical to complete the unit. Read More »

Graduate early career earnings are trending down

Andrew NortonLeave a comment

The latest HILDA Statistical Report has some interesting cohort data on graduate earnings in the early years after graduation.

It shows that later cohorts of graduates are, on average, earning less at the same point in their careers than earlier cohorts. Five years after completing a bachelor degree, people who graduated between 2001 and 2005 earned on average $140 more than people who graduated between 2006 and 2009. In turn, the 2006-2009 graduates earned more five years after completion than 2010-11 graduates, by $75 per week.*

In the HILDA data presented, at least two trends contribute to these results. In all years except the year immediately after graduation, the 2006-2009 and 2010-2011 cohorts are more likely to be studying full-time than the 2001-2005 cohort, which means that their employment income is lower and they will have less work experience five years out.

Second, the younger cohorts are more likely to be working part-time even if they are not studying full-time.
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