HECS and HECS-HELP: equity Issues

There have been many changes to the Higher Education Contribution Scheme (HECS) since itsintroduction in 1989. The most significant of these is possibly the reforms announced in the 2003Federal Budget, which allow universities to increase the contributions required of students by up to25%. This pape...

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Main Authors: Birch, E., Miller, Paul
Format: Journal Article
Published: Routledge 2006
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/41766
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author Birch, E.
Miller, Paul
author_facet Birch, E.
Miller, Paul
author_sort Birch, E.
building Curtin Institutional Repository
collection Online Access
description There have been many changes to the Higher Education Contribution Scheme (HECS) since itsintroduction in 1989. The most significant of these is possibly the reforms announced in the 2003Federal Budget, which allow universities to increase the contributions required of students by up to25%. This paper considers the distribution of deferred HECS liabilities according to thesocioeconomic status of students. An algorithm is presented for converting area-level data to itsindividual-level equivalent. It is found that students of lower socioeconomic status defer a muchlarger proportion of their HECS than students of higher socioeconomic status. The adverse sideeffects of HECS identified in the literature will therefore be more acute for low socioeconomicstatus background students than for their wealthier counterparts.
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spelling curtin-20.500.11937-417662017-09-13T15:59:12Z HECS and HECS-HELP: equity Issues Birch, E. Miller, Paul There have been many changes to the Higher Education Contribution Scheme (HECS) since itsintroduction in 1989. The most significant of these is possibly the reforms announced in the 2003Federal Budget, which allow universities to increase the contributions required of students by up to25%. This paper considers the distribution of deferred HECS liabilities according to thesocioeconomic status of students. An algorithm is presented for converting area-level data to itsindividual-level equivalent. It is found that students of lower socioeconomic status defer a muchlarger proportion of their HECS than students of higher socioeconomic status. The adverse sideeffects of HECS identified in the literature will therefore be more acute for low socioeconomicstatus background students than for their wealthier counterparts. 2006 Journal Article http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/41766 10.1080/13600800600750921 Routledge fulltext
spellingShingle Birch, E.
Miller, Paul
HECS and HECS-HELP: equity Issues
title HECS and HECS-HELP: equity Issues
title_full HECS and HECS-HELP: equity Issues
title_fullStr HECS and HECS-HELP: equity Issues
title_full_unstemmed HECS and HECS-HELP: equity Issues
title_short HECS and HECS-HELP: equity Issues
title_sort hecs and hecs-help: equity issues
url http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/41766