Nov 2, 2010

Goddamn HECS Debt

So the Australian Government has this system called HECS, under which the Government pays 'part or all' (though very rarely 'all') of your University fees to your University. Once your income reaches the Australian Taxation Office's minimum threshold, you are required to start repaying your student loan.

Australian University students currently owe well over $10 billion under the HECS loan scheme, with the average student being in debt of around $12,000 to $14,000. Apparently one third of these students will not end up paying back their HECS debt in their lifetime.

I'm currently working at paying off a student loan for my Arts / Law degree of some $36,000. According to the Government, you don't pay interest on the loan, which is partially bullshit because they increase the student loan by CPI (inflation) each year. Yes, the Government does subsidise some of your University fees through this student loan scheme, but the amount is bugger all for many degrees. For example, Law students get less than 20% subsidy, while Medicine students get around 70%.

Apparently there were talks about allowing students to reduce their HECS debt by $10 for every hour of recognised community service work they do. Oh well, I guess picking beer cans off a beach somewhere for 10 bucks an hour beats slaving my arse off working under a sleazy barrister on a similar hourly rate of pay to repay my goddamn student loan. End rant.

14 comments:

  1. Yeah, they always screw you over with student loans.

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  2. good blog i will follow u and suport
    :)

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  3. why is there such a system? sounds like they didnt think it through at all..

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  4. UK student load system sucks too, I feel ya pain :(

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  5. The student loans in the United States are pretty bad as well. But at least one has the opportunity to go to school though. Good post, cheers mate.

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  6. I know how you feel, i'm in so much debt from uni and only 2 of 5 years in. So much money to pay off.

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  7. this is how loan companies make their money...

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  8. Bad luck. A lot of my friends who are at Uni also have gotten the Student Loan. They think it's brilliant however when I told them that they'll have to pay it back they didn't seem too happy. I guess they should have fully understood what they were getting into.

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