The Grattan Institute has proposed that a 15% surcharge should be added to the Higher Education Loan Program (HELP) debt of undergraduate and college students.
The surcharge is not an up front fee. It is a fee that is added to the existing debt and paid later, depending on a graduates future income. Repayments are only made if a graduates income exceeds about A$56,000 per annum.
This flat rate means that, while a graduates loan would initially increase by 15%, that figure would not get bigger over time.
Currently full-fee undergraduates pay a 25% fee on their loans, vocational education students a 20% fee, while postgraduate and government-supported students pay no loan fee. There is no obvious reason for these dispariti…
Read the full article at: http://theconversation.com/the-case-for-a-fixed-15-fee-on-all-student-loans-69993